


Sudden Changes

by Darkalli



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Ginny Weasley Bashing, Het and Slash, Humor, M/M, Male Slash, Manipulative Dumbledore, Mild Language, Minor Violence, Molly Weasley Bashing, Past Child Abuse, Romance, Ron Weasley Bashing, Slytherin Harry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-12
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-07-14 15:17:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 73,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7177079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkalli/pseuds/Darkalli
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU after year 5: After discovering the extent of Dumbledore's manipulations, Harry leaves Privet Drive to spend the rest of his summer changing, forming new friendships and is no longer the chess pawn he was made to be. Sarcastic and semi-dark Harry. Slash and OOC.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Escape

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
**Warnings:** AU after year five. This is slash. If you don’t like slash, then don’t read my story. No one is forcing you to.  
**Pairings:** Harry/Severus, Draco/Blaise, Remus/Lucius, Neville/Luna, Fred/Angelina Johnson and George/Oliver Wood. (There will be a surprise pairing in a later chapter).  
**A/N:** I've decided to try out this site for my story, been having some problems on other sites with posting. Hope you enjoy this story.

 

When you want to fool the world, tell the truth.

**Chapter One:** The Escape!

 

What would you do if you were beaten constantly by your relatives? Would you sit there and keep taking the punishments? Or would you put your foot down and change your attitude so that no one could take advantage of you again?

This was a decision that Harry Potter was faced with in the summer before his seventh and final year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The first day of holidays saw Harry beaten by his uncle and locked in his bedroom with no food for a week, all because he lost a rather important client at work and blamed it on Harry’s freakishness; like he did with everything else that went wrong for he and his family. 

Harry had taken up what some people considered a rather nasty habit over the last year to try and cope with all the stress caused by his role in the upcoming war as well as his less than stellar home life. He had managed to convert enough of his galleons into muggle money so he could pay the local homeless guy, who hung out near the corner shop a few blocks away, to buy him the cigarettes he had become addicted to after finding one in Dudley’s room whilst cleaning it the previous summer. 

At first he snuck a few here and there from the pack that Dudley hid in his bedroom closet. It wasn’t until he had to do a store run for his aunt to buy a new tub of ice cream for his grossly overweight cousin, who had already gone through the three his mother had bought in shopping at the start of the week, that Harry saw Mr. Hodge in his usual spot out the front of the shop with his usual sign asking for money. He remembered the muggle money he had managed to convert the previous summer that was still stashed inside an old pair of socks under the lose floorboards in his room. If he paid Mr. Hodge to get him the cigarettes then he no longer had to pinch them from his cousin, he was lucky his cousin was as thick as he is round or he would have noticed the missing ones from his packs that Harry had been taking over the last month.

It had worked out well, even though he was legally allowed to buy them himself once he had turned sixteen Harry knew that if he went into the shop to buy them his aunt and uncle would find out. It was less hassle to pay £15 to Mr. Hodge leaving the left over money as payment to keep his mouth shut about their little deal. It seemed really ridiculous to go about it the way he did but his family were vigilant nut bags who had half the neighbourhood reporting his every move.

His most recent indulgence, which came about quite accidently whilst at Hogwarts, was rather reckless of him but he wasn’t going to stop anytime soon. Even though the Weasley twins had left in his fifth year they had still left behind a lot of their hidden treasures. They had sent an owl to Harry telling him of their little room filled with banned items, one of which was a bottle of Ogden’s Old Firewhisky. He learned how to make Sober Up potions pretty quickly after that little experiment.

Drinking became a habit on weekends when he would hide away in the room of requirement where he could study without Ron complaining or Hermione giving him curious looks. Apparently him actually wanting to do better in his classes was an odd occurrence. His laziness in class stemmed from when he was in primary school and was made to do worse than Dudley in school after a very positive school report that made his cousin look even dumber than Harry thought was possible. That earned him a whipping with his uncle’s belt and the whole weekend locked in his cupboard, his list of chores the following week was longer than usual due to the two missed days over the weekend.

Even though his schooling had improved it sure didn’t improve his interactions with Snape, the man seemed to treat him even worse than usual. Even though potions class wasn’t his best subject he still managed to get an O in his OWL’s which meant that his potions professor had no choice but to accept him into his class in Harry’s sixth year. His diligent studying managed to pay off, even with Ron trying to distract him whenever he mentioned the library or homework.

Harry had started to get suspicious of the reasoning behind Ron’s constant efforts to distract Harry. Ron seemed to know just when Harry was planning on studying or doing his homework because he always turned up to drag Harry away. Once or twice wouldn’t have mattered but the more Ron did it the more suspicious Harry became. 

Not even half way through the year those suspicions were proven right, Harry had overheard a rather disturbing conversation between Ron and Dumbledore. He was wandering around the castle under his visibility cloak one night after a particularly nasty vision from Voldemort when he came across an abandoned classroom on the fifth floor. A door that was usually closed was slightly open and there were indistinct voices drifting out the three-inch gap. He would have continued to walk past, thinking it was students making out, if he hadn’t heard his name.

As quietly as he could he snuck up to the door and listened into the conversation between who he now recognised as the headmaster and his supposed best friend. It’s not every day you find out the person you thought was your friend was only being so for money, paid to them by someone you thought cared about you. Harry had drunk himself into a stupor that night and ended up late to potions the next day which earned him three nights’ detention, it didn’t help that he had told Snape to shut up when he spoke too loudly whilst standing next to him.

All of this eventually led to Harry’s plan of escape during the summer before his last year at Hogwarts, he was turning seventeen which would make him an adult in the Wizarding world. Dumbledore wouldn’t be able to stop him.

Harry was currently sitting on the floor of his bedroom waiting for his birthday. It was just before midnight and it was only a matter of minutes before he could finally get out of this hell hole that had been called his home for sixteen years. He had stopped caring after the first few beatings he had received from Vernon, sure he had been abused in the past by his uncle, but it had definitely gotten worse this summer. It wouldn’t surprise him if Dumbledore had something to do with that. 

Once midnight struck, Harry planned to leave Privet Drive and the Dursley’s once and for all. Even though the pain of learning that he was nothing but a pawn in a giant game of chess that the Wizarding world was playing stung more than the beatings, Harry still planned to go back into that world intent on killing Voldemort once and for all. Only this new school year bought with it a new and improved Harry Potter that didn’t plan on taking shit from anyone. 

No more manipulations from his so called mentor, Albus Dumbledore and he would take the harassment and verbal abuse from the Slytherin’s no longer. He planned to be re-sorted once school started, knowing that he would be placed into Slytherin, considering that is where the hat wanted to put him in first year. Once there he planned to gather as much information on Voldemort as possible. Harry also planned on having a friendship with Draco Malfoy, whose father Harry had discovered was actually a spy for the Order of the Phoenix. To say he was shocked to find out that Lucius Malfoy, the Ice Prince extraordinaire is and has always been a spy for the Order of the Phoenix came as quite a shock to Harry when he first found out. But it made sense; Draco’s attitude towards him always seemed forced over the years. No doubt to keep the children of loyal Death Eaters from finding out about his father and reporting it to Voldemort. Harry had found out this information during his usual midnight wanderings, he had stumbled across Professor Snape and Mr. Malfoy having a heated conversation in the potions classroom. He had listened in for quite a while, almost getting caught, but he had found out more about Draco’s father in that one conversation then he ever thought possible. It made it easier to forgive Draco’s past doings and would make a friendship between the pair a possibility. 

Coming out of his musings, Harry looked at the clock and noticed that it was now 12:05am. Time to get the hell out of there, and start anew. After putting out the remnants of the cigarette he had been puffing away at, Harry stood up and used wandless magic to pack and shrink his school trunk. He had gotten better at the rare art of magic during his confinement in his bedroom for the last month and planned on keeping it a secret until the right time to reveal it. After letting Hedwig out of her cage and telling her to meet him at the Leaky Cauldron, Harry shrunk the cage and put it in his pocket along with his trunk and with one last look at his previous prison shut the door and left number 4 Privet Drive for the last time.


	2. Let the Changes Begin

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
 **Warnings:** Slash and AU after year 5. Violence, swearing, alcoholism.  
 **Pairings:** HP/SS, DM/BZ, LM/RL, FW/AJ, GW/OW

The walls we build around us to keep out the pain, also keep out the joy.

**Chapter Two:** Let the Changes Begin

 

Harry arrived in an alleyway next to the street that The Leaky Cauldron was on, the street was quiet except for the faint sound of a car alarm going off from several streets away. The plus side to arriving this late was that there would be significantly less patrons in the pub then there is during the day, less people to report back to Dumbledore. The longer it took for the crazy old coot to discover he was no longer at his relatives place the better.

He entered the pub and saw Tom behind the bar wiping it down as he talked to a customer. Harry walked up to the bar and waited for Tom to finish talking before asking for a room for the next few days. He handed over the money for the first night and with a promise of payment the next day for the rest of his stay Tom handed him the key to his room.

Walking to the stairs Harry took them two at a time before entering the door at the top, walking down the hall to the left he looked for room seven. It was a similar design to room eleven which he had occupied in his third year when he ran away after the whole Marge incident. Not long after he sat down on the bed he heard a hoot at the window, looking over he saw Hedwig sitting on the ledge.

“Hey girl,” Harry said as he opened the window and let her inside. She flew over to the desk against the wall and settled down on the surface.

After re-sizing her cage and opening the door so she had access to her water Harry place it on the desk next to his owl before pulling his shrunken trunk from his pocket. Once re-sized he rummaged through it for his least threadbare pair second hand pajamas and got dressed. Just as he was about to blow out the bedside candle and get into bed he heard another tap at the window. Outside was yet another owl but it was one he didn’t recognize.

The letter attached to the owl’s leg had the Gringotts seal on it. Wondering what the letter entailed he relieved the owl of the letter before giving it a treat from Hedwig’s cage before it flew away. He walked over to the bed and sat down before opening the envelope and removing the very formal looking letter.

 

_To Mister Harry James Potter,_

_We are sending this letter on the day of your seventeenth birthday to request an audience with you to discuss the contents of your parent’s joint Will. The aforementioned document has now been made open to you as you have become of age in the Wizarding world._

_Please send a response as soon as possible so a date may be appointed for the viewing._

_Regards Ragnok, Potter Family Account Manager._

 

Harry’s curiosity got the better of him and he found himself making his way to his trunk to search for parchment and quill to write a reply. He had planned on going to the bank to get more money from his vault later in the day so he may as well do both things at the same time. Once the letter was done he put it into an envelope and gave it to Hedwig before sending her off to the bank, he left the window open for when she returned and then finally got into bed. His head had barely touched the pillow when sleep finally took him.

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

The following morning found a response from his families account manager waiting for him on the desk next to Hedwig’s cage, said bird was currently asleep inside her cage. The envelope contained an appointment time for eleven thirty that morning along with an added appointment for one o’clock that afternoon with his godfather’s family account manager involving his deceased godfather’s will.

With that all sorted Harry dressed for the day and headed down into the pub to get some breakfast before starting his day. Breakfast ran for another hour which left him with an hour to spare before his first appointment at Gringotts.

The hour and a half after breakfast was filled with Harry going through the clothes in his trunk, he had grown another three inches leaving him at a height of five-foot ten inches, a lot better than his previous height of five-foot five he was the previous summer. His first stop after Gringotts would be Madam Malkin’s to acquire new robes for school, then he desperately needed to replace his muggle clothing, he was beyond sick of wearing his obese cousins cast offs.

He had already filled out and sent back the elective selection sheet he had received with his Hogwarts letter. He had dropped Divination and picked up Arithmancy, he also needed to re-stock his potions kit as this year required a wider selection of ingredients for the more advanced potions he would be doing. Seventh year was going to be more challenging, academically, then any previous year. His book selection alone was longer than previous as well, even with Lockhart’s ridiculous book list his second year.

He had a lot of shopping to do over the three days he was planning to stay at The Leaky Cauldron, after that he wanted to find somewhere, not occupied by members of the Order, to reside for the rest of the summer. Hopefully he could talk Remus into moving in with him instead of having to live in the home of his deceased friend.

Not long after Harry entered Diagon Alley he had to quickly duck into the nearest shop when he spotted the two elder Weasley’s headed towards the Leaky Cauldron, no doubt they were there to try and find him which meant it was only a matter of time before Dumbledore himself tried to contact him.

He watched through the slightly dusty front window as his former friend’s parents walked past, he noticed the determined look on Molly Weasley’s face and a sinking feeling formed in his stomach. That look didn’t look promising.

Once they entered the back entrance of the pub Harry exited the shop he had hidden in, absently noticing the sign on the window read Junk Shop before heading towards Gringotts. He just hoped that he wouldn’t run into Ron whilst he was there, if he was lucky they would be gone by the time he was finished at the bank.

The bank was filled with young witches and wizards waiting to be taken to their vaults so they could start shopping for the new school year. Harry made his way over to the Head Goblins desk and asked if he could be shown to Ragnok’s for his appointment. The Goblin named Griphook was assigned the job of taking him to the location of his appointment.

Ten minutes later found Harry sitting at the desk of his families Account Manager. Ragnok had a file on his desk with what Harry recognised as the Potter family seal emblazoned on the front. It was a rather thick file, more than Harry thought it would be.

 

“Mr. Potter, we are just waiting for the other parties mentioned in your parent’s will to turn up before we can start.” Ragnok informed him as he placed a significantly smaller file onto his desk before taking his seat.

“Who else will be turning up?” Harry asked, his curiosity peeked.

“The list of people mentioned in your parents will consists of Albus Dumbledore, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, yourself and Severus Snape. Seeing as Mr. Black has passed anything left to him will automatically go to you as the last living Potter heir.” Ragnok explained to the young wizard.

 

Harry had paled at the mention of the headmaster’s name, looked like the old coot would be interrupting sooner than Harry wanted. This was going to be a very interesting meeting, though he was rather curious as to why his potions professor would be mentioned in his parents will considering he and Harry’s father never got along.

Twenty minutes passed before a knock sounded on the door before it opened and admitted the three aforementioned wizards. Harry made sure he never made eye contact with either Dumbledore or Snape, knowing that was how they could read minds. Harry was planning on attempting Occlumency again but until then he needed to keep his secrets exactly that, secret.

As the three wizards sat in the seats appointed to them Dumbledore tried to engage Harry but was interrupted by Ragnok who wanted to get the will reading underway. He didn’t trust the head of Hogwarts, especially after the man tried to have the Potters Will sealed so Harry would not know about it. Something just didn’t seem right with the man’s reasoning’s behind the request and it made Ragnok very suspicious.

 

“Gentlemen, we are here today to read the Last Will and Testament of Mr. James Potter and Mrs. Lilly Potter (nee Evans). As I informed Mr. Potter the items Willed to the late Sirius Black will automatically go to him. If you would permit me I will get started with the reading.” With affirmative nods from the three older Wizards Ragnok started to read out the contents of the Will.

 

The reading lasted almost an hour and by the end of it the most shocked was the Potions Master. It’s not every day that your former enemy admitted to respecting and trusting you, even if it was posthumously. Dumbledore was less than impressed when the part about the Potters not wanting Harry to be left with Lilly’s sister was mentioned, especially when the Will stated that Dumbledore had been made aware of the request before it had even been written. That bit of information had garnered varying reactions from those in the room, Harry was furious that he had been placed with people that the headmaster knew he shouldn’t have gone to. Remus was upset that Dumbledore had lied to him about his reasoning for Harry being put with his aunt and uncle. And Snape developed a rather curious look that he kept aiming at Harry.

Remus had been left with a significant amount of money from his old friend, he had tried protesting it but once the Will had been read all the requests were already played out. An account had been set up for him and the money had automatically transferred from the Potter vault into it. Perhaps now the man would be able to buy clothing that didn’t look like it was going to fall apart. He would also be able to afford his monthly dose of Wolfsbane potion without having to scrimp and save what little money he did get.

Harry was now able to access the Potter vault, of which key he was handed by Ragnok, he decided that he would continue to use the vault his parents had set up for his school years whilst he still attended Hogwarts. He, however, did plan to go down to the family vault to have a look around. He was rather curious as to the contents, seeing as like the Blacks and Malfoy’s the Potter’s were an old Pure-Blood line.

Along with the vault came several properties, including the home in Godric’s Hollow that his family resided in when Voldemort attacked. One of the other properties was Potter Manor, the home in which his father was raised. The other was a small cottage by the sea that his great grandparents had built as a getaway from the fanciness of the grand manor their family had resided in for generations. Potter Manor had been made unplottable during the first war against Voldemort so Harry decided it would be the best place for him to live during the rest of the summer. 

Harry tried to escape the office before Dumbledore could corner him but his luck seemed to have run out, again. Harry had barely made it two steps out the door when the headmaster grabbed his arm, rather roughly at that. He swung Harry around before Harry had managed to wrench his arm free of the strong grip.

 

“Harry, why have you left the protection of your family’s home?”

“What protection? I’m of age now headmaster, you can no longer force me to live in that house anymore, blood wards be damned.”

“You are protected there from Voldemort, if he found out that you were running about in Diagon Alley he would send his Death Eaters after you.” He was determined to see Harry back under the care of his muggle relatives.

“Considering I have been here for less than a day and I still seem to be relatively safe, I think I’ll continue to stay at the Leaky Cauldron until I have my affairs in order. I will be moving into Potter Manor once I have done what I need to do and seeing as how the property is unplottable neither Voldemort or you will be able to find me. Now if you’ll excuse me headmaster, I have things to do that don’t involve you.” Harry sneered, he then turned to Remus and asked if he would accompany him to his family vault.

As he stormed off he left behind a steaming headmaster and an even more curious potions professor. Things just got more interesting, though most things involving The-Boy-Who-Lived usually were.

 

“Harry, that was no way to speak to Professor Dumbledore.” Admonished Remus as they followed Griphook to the carts so Harry could go to his family vault.

“Remus I have some things to tell you but if you can wait until we have finished here and head back to the Leaky Cauldron to talk I’ll tell you everything.” Harry told him.

“Alright, but I want to know everything.” The werewolf agreed as they entered the cart.

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

After Harry had collected money from his school vault for his shopping trip he and Remus had gone to the Potter vault where Harry had found several books about his family history. Once he had finished in his vault he and Remus headed to the appointment with his godfather’s family account manager, Sirius had left almost everything to him, he did leave quite a bit to his cousin Andromeda and her family though. He had also left a large portion of his money to Remus which was automatically transferred to the account that was opened by James Potter.

Seeing as he was about to have a very long and complicated conversation with his old Defence Professor Harry decided to forgo his shopping trip and head back to the Leaky Cauldron to have lunch with Remus whilst he explained his reasoning for leaving the Dursley’s as well as his suspicions about Dumbledore’s motives towards Harry’s role in the war against Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

 

“We can order lunch and have it up in my room, too many people down here for us to be able to have a private conversation.” Harry explained as he headed to the counter where Tom was so he could order their meals.

 

Once done, the pair of them headed upstairs to Harry’s room where Harry discovered several letters on his desk. Most likely from the Weasley’s trying to guilt him into returning to the Muggles. He did however notice a letter from Hermione which he decided to open, he was really hoping that he had at least one of his original friends left.

 

_Harry,_

_First I want to say Happy Birthday. Now you are of age I hope you will take this opportunity to study the practical side of your school work. I heard from Ron that everyone is trying to get you to return to the Dursley’s, I’m really hoping you don’t listen to them. Those muggles are horrid people and shouldn’t be able to look after a house plant let alone a child._

_I don’t know what Ron’s problem is but he is acting the same way he did in our fourth year, only now he seems to be a lot worse than he did back then. I’ve read up on it and Professor Dumbledore cannot make you return to that house, you are now of age in the wizarding world and no adult has a say in what you do outside of school anymore. I can send you a copy of the book if you’d like. I’m not thick Harry, I’ve seen how much your school work has improved over the last two years. I’m happy that you are finally taking your schooling seriously._

_I’m in Bulgaria at the moment on holiday with my parents, we will however be returning in the next week and I’m hoping to meet up with you at Diagon Alley. Happy Birthday again Harry, hope to hear from you soon._

_Love Hermione._

 

“Well at least I know I still have one friend.” Harry said with a smile as he placed the letter on the desk. Hedwig was still asleep in her cage so Harry decided on waiting to write his reply to Hermione’s Birthday message.

“Alright Harry, we’re here now please explain to me what is going on.” Remus asked as he took a seat.

“You already know what my life has been like at the Dursley’s, now you know that I was never supposed to go to them in the first place. Dumbledore put me there knowing full well that the blood protection wards would only work if I viewed that house as my home. I’ve never felt at home there, I sure as hell wasn’t treated as though it was my home.” Harry started to explain as he took the seat next to Remus.

“About half way through the last school year I overheard a conversation between Dumbledore and Ron about how Ron wasn’t trying hard enough to get me to concentrate less on doing my school work and more on playing around. He told Ron that he wasn’t being paid to let me learn.”

 

Harry went into further detail about what he had overheard in that conversation, they spent the next two hours discussing what Harry should do when he returned to Hogwarts. Once their plans were firmly in place Harry changed the subject to a different topic, namely Remus moving in with him for the rest of the summer, he needed a more experienced wizard to help him with his studying.

 

“I’m planning on spending the next two days shopping for what I need for school as well as going into muggle London to get some new clothes as well.” Harry told Remus as he got out a piece of parchment and his ink and quill, he would need to buy more of those too.

“What are your plans for the next few days Remus?”

“I’ve been asked to come back to Hogwarts to teach Defence, I’ll need to get new teaching robes and there are a few books I want to look into for the seventh year students.” Remus informed him.

“You’re coming back to Hogwarts? That is awesome Remus, you’re still the best defence teacher Hogwarts has had. At least this year we will actually learn something unlike my fifth year when we were stuck with the Umbitch.”

“I was hoping you could help me out with the upper year’s lesson plans, the younger years have a set list of spells and subjects to learn but years six and seven are up to the teacher. I have a rough idea as to what I want to do, especially with You-Know-Who back in power and the Death Eaters attacking everywhere.”

“Of course I’ll help; we can go book shopping tomorrow. I think Obscurus Books will be the best bet to find some of the books we’ll need, I can even go through the Black library at Grimmauld Place.” Was the reply from Harry as he bounced in his seat with thinly veiled excitement.

The new school year was looking to be the most interesting of all. Tomorrow would be filled with shopping and Harry just hoped that he didn’t run into Ron or his parents while he was at it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So far I have 9 chapters posted on fanfiction.net so I plan on having them all posted on here in the next two days. I hope you enjoy the story.


	3. To Obey, or Not to Obey

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
 **Warnings:** Slash, violence, mentions of child abuse and language. Alcohol consumption.  
 **Pairings:** HP/SS, DM/BZ, RL/LM, GW/OW, FW/AJ

Identify our identity  
We are the Youth...  
Conformed by your hostility,  
Subjects of the truth.  
Constant is the struggle  
We contest to your rebutle  
Bound by the chains  
We shine through your shadows  
Guided by the light  
We’ll take advantage of this life  
The tables will turn  
These are the ends before the middle  
Time can’t stand still  
So call it rebellion if you will.

**Chapter Three:** To obey or not to obey!

 

“What about this one, Remus?” Harry asked as he pulled another old leather bound book off of the shelf.

 

Harry and Remus had spent most of the next morning rummaging through the book shelves in Obscurus Books looking for material that would help Remus to write up his lesson plans for the upper grades at Hogwarts. Most of the books would be available in the school library but Remus needed some for himself.

“Add that one to the pile. We’re almost done here, where do you want to go next?”

“I need to get new robes for school, I want to get that over and done with first. I pretty much need to replace everything for school as well as my muggle clothing.”

“Ok, how about we buy these books and then head to Madam Malkin’s?” Remus asked Harry as he placed another book on the stack they already had.

“Sounds like a plan.”

 

The pair of them picked up half of the books each and headed to the counter to make their purchase. Harry had added a few extra books for his own reading, if everyone was expecting him to defeat Voldemort then he needed to be prepared. Voldemort was seventy years old, that’s a load more experience than a scrawny seventeen-year-old who hadn’t even graduated from Hogwarts yet. Not to mention the skill of his Death Eaters, not all of them were sane so their actions would be hard to predict at the best of times let alone in the middle of a battle.

Harry was planning on starting up the DA once school started back, new location and a new name was in order. He was no longer fighting for the Order, nor was he fighting for Dumbledore. Since Voldemort’s return in Harry’s fourth year he had been given no training or help for the upcoming battle. He was going into this whole thing blind and would most likely not come out of it alive unless he trained.

His best bet at that would be Professor Snape, being an ex-Death Eater he would know how the others fought. The problem with that plan was that Snape was more likely to wear a tutu to class than help Harry. 

He knew that Remus would help him, he got the job as Defence Professor for a reason. He needed to find out how far the deception in the Weasley family went before asking any of them for help, and he has Hermione who was pretty much a walking library. The students needed to be prepared as well, Harry just knew that Voldemort would bring the war to Hogwarts.

 

“That will be thirty galleons, fourteen sickles and six knuts please.” The ringing of the register at the front of the store bought Harry out of his thoughts. Remus handed over the money for the books and after shrinking them and placing them in their pockets both wizards exit the store and made their way towards Madam Malkin’s.

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

The pair of wizards spent the day shopping in Diagon Alley, Harry re-stocked most of his school supplies and picked up the books he needed from Flourish and Blotts. They stopped to have a very unhealthy lunch at Florean’s before they headed into muggle London so Harry could do his shopping. He had even managed to sneak away for a few minutes to stock up on his supply of cigarettes, a couple of cartons would tie him over until the Christmas holidays where he could stock up for the remainder of the year. He was planning on leaving the Firewhisky until the next day, Remus had a teachers meeting at the school so Harry would have an hour to buy the alcohol and hide it in his trunk.

It wasn’t until they came back from muggle London that Harry ran into Mrs. Weasley outside of Madam Malkin’s where Harry had to pick up his robe order. Remus had stopped in at the Leaky Cauldron to order their dinner while Harry picked up his school robes. Before he had a chance to hide from her, like he had the previous day, she had spotted him and with a determined look made her way over to where he was standing.

“Harry, what are you doing here? I thought Headmaster Dumbledore told you go back to your aunt’s house.” Her screech attracted the attention of the few stragglers in the Alley that were doing the mad shopping dash before the stores closed for the night.

“I’m seventeen now Mrs. Weasley, I no longer need to be at the Dursley’s. Neither you, Dumbledore or any other member of the Order can tell me what I can and can’t do any longer.” Harry tried to walk around the intimidating witch but she kept blocking his escape.

“There are wards on that house that are to keep you safe from You-Know-Who, if he finds out you are out in the open he will attack.”

“The so called protection wards on my relative’s home have not been able to protect me from Voldemort since he used my blood to make himself a new body. But of course you all know this anyway but you still want me to return.” Was Harry’s snide remark.

“I have better things to do then stand here in the middle of the street having an argument with you that I obviously won’t win. Then again, I really don’t give a damn what you think so if you’ll excuse me I’ll be going now.” 

 

Harry finally managed to get around the Weasley matriarch leaving her standing out the front of the robe shop with a rather sour look on her face. He was tired of people thinking that his life was for them to rule, that his every move was theirs to command. It hurt even more knowing that the one person he thought of as a mother was no better than the headmaster.

After picking up his purchase and exiting the shop Harry noticed that the nosy witch had left, most likely to report her encounter with Harry to Dumbledore. It was only a matter of time before he either got a letter from the manipulative old man or an actual visit. The quicker he got to Potter Manor the better, what’s left of his summer would finally be peaceful.

 

“You’ll never guess who I just ran into.” Harry told Remus as he took a seat at the table the werewolf had reserved for them.

“Who?”

“Mrs. Weasley, she’s doing Bumblefucks bidding by trying to get me to go back to the Dursley’s.”

“Harry! Watch the language.” Remus admonished him with an incredulous look on his face.

“Sorry Remus, but I’m tired of everyone telling me what to do. Especially when it isn’t any of their damn business. I’m of age now, no adult outside of the school can tell me what I can or can’t do during the school holidays.”

“I know Harry, but you need to go about this logically. If you keep getting angry then you’ll give away all your plans before you want them known.”

“I know, sorry. I do reserve the right to say whatever I want to Ronald though.”

“Fair enough.” 

 

Their food arrived then and they spent the meal outlining the lesson plans for Remus’ classes. Harry was already looking forward to the lessons, at least this school year they would be learning something useful. 

After they had finished and paid for their meals, they both headed back upstairs to the room that Remus had rented for the duration of his stay. As far as Dumbledore was aware Remus was there to keep an eye on Harry, instead he was helping Harry with his plans of hiding out for the rest of the summer.

Upon arrival at the room, there was an unfamiliar owl waiting on the top of the bed post with a letter tied to one of its legs. From the looks of the envelope it was from Dumbledore, the vibrant colour of the ink was a dead giveaway before the style was even noticed. Seeing that it was addressed to Harry, Remus relieved the owl of the letter and sent it on its way back to the school.

 

“What does he want now?” Harry asked as he tore open the seal on the envelope and pulled out the letter.

 

_Harry,_

_I just received a floo call from Molly Weasley informing me that you were disrespectful towards her when she stopped you in Diagon Alley to wish you a Happy Birthday. Just because you are now seventeen does not mean you can start disrespecting your elders, I am very disappointed in your attitude and ask that you come to the Order Headquarters so that we may discuss this matter._

_Two Order members will be escorting you back to your aunt’s home in Surrey the day after tomorrow. Professor Snape has already informed me that Voldemort is aware of your current location and whilst he has yet to give orders it is only a matter of time before he sends Death Eaters to capture you._

_Albus Dumbledore._

 

“Wow, that man is really full of himself.” Harry scoffed in disbelief as he handed the letter to Remus to read.

“It looks like you’ll need to head to the Manor sooner than you wanted, you would be better off leaving tomorrow once you have finished your school shopping.”

“Yea, I figured that. I will need to keep an eye out for anyone following me tomorrow when I’m out doing the rest of my shopping.” There was always someone throwing a wrench into his plans so it was no surprise that it was still happening.

“He seems very determined that you return to Privet Drive.”

“Yea, well it’s never going to happen. I’ll make sure that I have all my things shrunken and on my person at all times tomorrow just in case I need to make a run for it.”

“Dumbledore may be expecting that so he’ll have your followers on high alert after sending that letter. Just be careful.”

After Harry promised he would be careful and watch his back the next day, both wizards got out the books they had purchased earlier in the day and sat down at the desk to start on the lesson plans for Remus. He had to submit his lesson plans when he went in for the school meeting, so they needed to be complete before the end of the night.

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

Shopping was a pain in the ass, Harry was sick of having to go from shop to shop for all his school supplies. Why couldn’t they just make one big shop so it could be done all in one go. At the rate things were going he was likely to pull all his hair out and scream.

He had almost had a run in with Ron whilst he was replacing his broom servicing kit, the prat was walking along with his sister but Harry was unable to hear their conversation which led him to believe that they had a privacy charm up. It made him wonder what they were talking about, or who. Thankfully they were so engrossed in the conversation that neither of them noticed him make a quick dash back into Quality Quidditch.

Thankfully the Apothecary was his last visit before he could finally get away from the Order members that had been following him around all morning. They weren’t really good at hiding, Harry had caught the two of them watching him, if you’re going to follow someone around in a shopping area at least make it look like you are actually buying something.

He was pretty sure that the two Order members following him didn’t even know the meaning of the word subtle. The plus side was that with their lack of ability to stay hidden whilst watching him he would be able to get away a lot easier. He just needed to stock up on his potion ingredients then he could leave, the hard part was the second apparition he would need to do the second he arrived. It was a guarantee that the two following him would follow his apparition signature so he would need to apparate the second he arrived at his first stopping point, it was harder to track a second jump made so soon after the initial one.

He noticed the pair trying to casually walk past the front window of Slug and Jiggers as he entered to do his shopping. As they looked in the window to try and see him he put his face up against the window waving.

 

“Take a picture, it’ll last longer.”

 

The pair looked like deer’s caught in the headlights of a truck, seemed they honestly thought he hadn’t seen them. Chuckling to himself, Harry turned around and almost bumped straight into Draco Malfoy and his father. The elder Malfoy’s face was a blank slate but the younger had a look of shock on his face.

 

“Hey Malfoy, what’s up?” Harry asked as walked past the pair.

“I was actually hoping to run into you two. Saves me having to send a letter I know you won’t respond to.”

“What are you on about, Potter?” the younger Malfoy asked as he and his father followed the saviour towards the potion shelves.

“I need to speak to your father about his duty as a spy for Dumbledore and his army of flying chickens.” Harry figured it would be better to just come out and say it rather than beating around the bush about the issue.

“What are you talking about Mr. Potter?”

“I know you’re a spy for Dumbledore, I accidently overheard the conversation you had with Professor Snape back in February. I know that you were forced into an arranged marriage with Narcissa Black because your father wanted an alliance with them. I know that you are gay and the only time you ever slept with her was to conceive Draco, and I know that you were forced by you father to join the Death Eaters during the first war.” Harry informed them quietly as he went from shelf to shelf in search of the potions ingredients that he needed.

“No one but Severus and Dumbledore know that I am a spy for the Order, it was easier for Severus and I to both be spies because we both aren’t always called to the same meetings so there is a lesser chance of us missing out on any information.” The aristocrat replied as he stood closer to his son’s school mate.

“So he’s telling the truth? You really are against Voldemort?” Draco asked his father as he turned with a faint look of hurt and hope on his face.

“I wanted to tell you, I just didn’t know how much of an influence your mother had on you. If she had her way you would have been marked last year but I was able to talk her out of it until you turn seventeen. Your birthday was last month and I’ve been delaying it as much as I can but she is persistent and there is only so much I can do.”

“I don’t want to be a Death Eater, I never have.” Draco informed his father. He had been trying to build up the courage for the last year to tell his father that, until now he never thought not being a Death Eater was an option.

“I don’t know what to do, short of you running away in the middle of the night, I haven’t been able to come up with a way to get you out of it. My position as spy is too important to take you away anywhere so you would have to go on your own.” Malfoy senior informed his son.

 

During the pairs conversation Harry had been thinking, he could let Malfoy come and stay at the manor with him. It would give the blonde somewhere safe to stay and it would provide a secure place for Malfoy senior to come and visit his son. There would be fighting between the pair of course, you couldn’t repair six years of rivalry overnight but it would happen eventually.

 

“I have a place he can stay, it’s heavily warded and is un-plotable. He can stay there with me for the rest of the summer, Dumbledore doesn’t even know where it is.” Harry suggested to the pair.

“Why would you help me? Aren’t we supposed to be enemies?” Draco asked as he and his father turned to look at the Boy Wonder.

“We’re seventeen, Malfoy. Don’t you think it’s a bit immature to continue fighting each other when there are more important things to be worrying about?”

“What’s the catch, Potter?” the younger Malfoy was still sceptic about the situation. Why would Potter want to help him after all the crap he had put him through during the six years of schooling they had shared together.

“There is no catch, I’m tired of everyone sticking a stereotype on me and expecting me to conform to their every whim. I found out that Dumbledore has been paying Weasley to be my friend all these years, out of my own money might I add.” Harry confided.

“I’m tired of petty arguments, they serve no purpose and do nothing but waste time that I could be using to research ways to kill Voldemort. I could really use your help seeing as I can no longer rely on Ron to do anything but spy on me for Dumbledore.”

“I would like to come with you to this manor you speak of, if it’s the one I’m thinking of then the wards haven’t been updated since before you were born so they may be weak.” Malfoy senior said as he turned to Harry.

“No problem, this is my last stop for my school supplies. I also have two Order members following me for Dumbledore because he wants me to go back to my relative’s house for the rest of the summer. I’ll be leaving straight after I am finished here and it’s a guaranteed that they will follow me so I’ll give the address of my second apparition point and I’ll meet you there.” Harry pulled a self-inking quill from out of his robe pocket and tore off a piece of parchment from the bottom of his shopping list before writing down the address the two blondes would need.

“I’ll explain everything else when we arrive at our final destination. Just so you know Remus Lupin will be staying with us, he’ll most likely be there by the time we arrive so I don’t want any snide or derogatory remarks about him.” Harry said as he handed the piece of parchment over to the elder Malfoy before taking his purchases to the front counter to pay for them.

 

With everything done, Harry left the store with his shrunken potions ingredients and headed for the apparition point near the Leaky Cauldron. His two little friends were following him like the diligent little drones they were, it was going to be fun to mess with Dumbledore. Not only was the summer going to get even more interesting with the younger Malfoy staying at his family’s home but the school year was going to be very entertaining with both Ron and Dumbledore to contend with.


	4. Explanations

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
 **Warnings:** Slash, violence, mentions of child abuse and language. Alcohol consumption.  
 **Pairings:** HP/SS, DM/BZ, LM/RL, FW/AJ, GW/OW

No one can make you inferior without your consent.

**Chapter Four:** Explanations

 

Harry had met up with the Malfoys at his second apparition point, he had then given them the directions to the where his family Manor was located. Within twenty minutes they had finally made it to the starting point of the wards, they were just able to see the Manor from where they were standing. Harry crossed over the wards first and then turned to watch as the two Malfoy men crossed over as well.

“The wards are very weak; they should not have let Draco or I through without verbal consent from you.” Lucius Malfoy informed the young wizard as he turned to look at the ward barrier line.

“Can you fix it?” Harry asked as he moved to stand next to the elder blonde.

“We will need to find the centre of the house, that is where the wards would have been centred when they were first set. It would be better if you did the warding as it is your family home and if I tried to add to them the wards would collapse completely.” Lucius informed him.

“I have no knowledge of wards; I wouldn’t even know where to start.” Harry informed them as they made their way up the path towards the house.

“I will instruct you on how to repair the wards, as head of the Malfoy family it is my job every year to strengthen the wards on my family Manor. Once I teach you the basics the rest will be easy to you, it is harder to start from scratch then it is to build on wards that are already present.”

The three wizards walked up the steps to the front door, the yard looked in very good condition which led Harry to believe that there was someone keeping the house in good repair. Well, at least the outside anyway. Taking a deep breath, Harry pulled on the handle and pushed the door inwards. He let the breath out with a stunned whistle when he saw the entry way of the house. It looked as though whoever was in charge had kept the inside of the house in very good condition as well. The floor was made from a bright white marble that had traces of blue throughout it, the walls were painted a light burgundy and there were table and chairs lining the left side of the room.

As they entered the main room, a house elf popped in. It was dressed in a red and gold coloured uniform with the Potter family crest on the pocket on the top left side and it made Harry wonder why the Malfoy house elves wore rags.

“Young Master Potter, it is good to be seeing you after so long, my name is Harper and I am the head House Elf at Potter Manor. How may I be serving you sir?”

“Hi, Harper. Well to start off with I need you to show me where the centre of the house is so I can strengthen the wards. There are some rather unscrupulous characters who would like nothing more than to find me right now and I would like the wards to keep everyone out who isn’t keyed in.” Harry informed the House Elf, he would wait to find out about the uniform later.

“Of course sir, please follow me.” The House Elf bowed to the three wizards before leading them into the cellar off of the kitchen.

“The is the centremost point of the house, Master Potter before you always came here to strengthen the wards for the house.”

“Thank you, Harper. Can you also inform the other House Elves of our arrival and have four rooms set up? Remus Lupin will be arriving later to spend the rest of the summer here; we’ll also need to find somewhere safe for him to transform during the full moon.”

“Young Master Lupin already has a room here, he spent many summers here during his school years. Your grandfather also had a room set up specifically for his use during the full moon, the wards on it will need to be re-enforced but other than that the room should still be in good condition.” They were informed by the Head Elf.

“As long as he takes the Wolfsbane Potion he won’t need to be locked up, it renders the dangerous beast into an ordinary, sleepy wolf. As long as Lupin takes the potion he’ll spend the night sleeping so there will be no need to lock him in a room like some kind of animal.” Lucius informed them, the sneer on his face showed what he thought of the idea of locking Remus up. Yet another thing for Harry to explore later.

 

Once the accommodations were sorted, Harper went to inform the other House Elves of their master’s return. While the Head Elf was seeing to the task set to him, Malfoy senior went about teaching Harry how to strengthen the house wards. Five minutes into the lesson Draco got bored and decided to go off and look around the house.

“Don’t go touching anything.” Were the last words he heard from his father as he ascended the stairs.

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

While Harry strengthened the wards on the Manor, Draco wandered around the large house. It was roughly the same size as Malfoy Manor but unlike his childhood home Potter Manor was more open and light as opposed to the dark and dreary setting of Malfoy Manor.

The first set of stairs he came across he decided to climb, maybe he’d find something more interesting than a bunch of empty room. As he walked along the hallway at the top of the stairs he opened up each door he came upon, those that would open anyway. He came across a few bedrooms and bathrooms and it wasn’t till he got to the end of the hall and opened the first door he came to. 

Upon entering the room Draco’s jaw nearly dropped to the floor. There were shelves upon shelves of books, the library was at least twice the size of the Malfoy one. All four of the walls were covered from floor to ceiling with built in bookshelves, the wall opposite to the door was half covered in picture windows that reached from the floor to half way up the wall and in front of the windows were, arranged around two low lying tables, were four very comfortable looking lounges. 

Draco was in heaven; he was definitely going to be spending the rest of the summer in this room. He walked further in and picked a bookshelf at random and reached for the first book he saw, it turned out to be a book on Transfiguration; specifically, the Animagus Transformation. He walked over to one of the lounges and sat down to start reading.

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

While Draco was keeping busy in the library, Harry and Lucius were both still in the kitchen cellar working on the wards. The wards weren’t too badly degraded so it wasn’t going to take too much time to fix. Harry had already strengthened the anti-apparition wards as well as the ones that prevented anyone who wasn’t keyed into the wards from flooing into Manor. He was waiting on doing the barrier wards until Remus turned up or he wouldn’t be able to get onto the property.

“Alright, the next one you need to strengthen is the muggle repelling ward. That’s the same one that is on most wizarding buildings to keep muggles from coming too close.”

“Ok, how do I find that one?” Harry asked as he started to concentrate on the magical core of the house that all the wards were tied to.

“It should be a light green colour; it will be tied in with the barrier ward.”

 

It took Harry five minutes to find and enforce the ward that Malfoy was talking about. The wards were rather easy to repair, Harry thought that the task would be a lot harder than it turned out to be. With only the barrier ward left to fix, Harry and the senior Malfoy left the cellar in search of Draco.

It took them twenty minutes of searching for the younger Malfoy before Harry just called for Harper and asked him if he knew of the blonde’s whereabouts. They found him still sitting on the same lounge with the same book he had picked up earlier, in the time he had been gone he had managed to read nearly half of the book.

Lucius was impressed by the vastness of the Potter library, then again his own one is only filled with books to do with the Dark Arts. His father never saw any use in books that weren’t to do with the Dark Arts, he had all the other useless books removed when Lucius was a young boy.

 

“Find anything interesting, Draco?” Harry asked as made his way over to the other teen.

“I just grabbed the first book I saw, this one is about the Animagus transformation.” 

“I can’t believe the amount of books in here, the room doesn’t seem that big from the outside.” Harry said as he made his way over to one of the bookshelves to the left of the room.

“It’s an enlargement charm, most wizarding homes have them on certain rooms.” Lucius informed him as he too went and looked at the nearest shelf to him.

“Yes! This is exactly what I’ve been looking for, the one’s I got from my family vault weren’t the ones I thought they were.” Harry exclaimed as he pulled a book off of the shelf. It read ‘The History of the Potter line: Volume One’.

“All pure blood’s keep the history of their family line, it’s sort of like their family tree only with much more detail. Every time a new member is added to the family the newest volume updates itself.” Lucius explained as he slowly walked along the right wall looking at the titles of the books.

 

Harry walked over to one of the lounges and, after taking his shoes off, curled up on it to start reading the book. He did, however, have the foresight to call for Harper and ask for drinks for everyone before asking when lunch would be ready. Once the answer was given, all three wizards became engrossed in their selected books.

HPSSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

Three hours passed with the three wizards sitting in the library reading their respective books, they only stopped long enough to eat the lunch that the house elves had prepared for them before going back to their books.

They never would have noticed Remus’ arrival if one of the house elves hadn’t of escorted him into the library where they were all sitting. It took them a few minutes to realise that there was someone standing at the doorway, in the end Remus had to clear his throat rather loudly to get the attention of the other wizards in the room.

 

“Remus, you’re here.” Harry closed his book and put it on the table next to the lounge he was sitting on before he got up from his seat and headed over to give said wizard a hug.

“Took you long enough to notice I was here.” Remus said as he hugged Harry back.

“Sorry, I was kind of engrossed in the book I was reading. I found the books on my family history so I’ve been catching up.” Harry told him as he leads him over to the seating area.

“Harry, do you want to tell me why the Malfoy’s are here?” Remus asked as he spotted the father and son sitting near the window.

“Yea, that’s a long story. Why don’t you sit down and I’ll get Harper to bring us some drinks?” Harry hedged as he sat between the Malfoy’s and Remus.

“Harper is still alive? He was old when I was a teenager, last time I saw him was at your parents wedding.” Remus was shocked to know the Head Elf was still alive. 

 

Harry called for Harper and asked him to bring some tea and biscuits for everyone, Harry thought that this conversation would need something stronger but he didn’t trust himself to not over indulge. He hadn’t even had a chance to sneak away for a smoke yet and he’d been dying for one all afternoon. Looked like he would have to make a bathroom break again.

Once Harper had returned with the tea tray, Harry started the explanation of why the Malfoy’s were at the Manor. Remus was shocked to find out that the Malfoy patriarch had been a spy for the Order of the Phoenix all along. Lucius was in his senior year at Hogwarts when Remus was only a first year so he never really knew anything about him, just what he’d learned in passing from other wizards. He did, however, notice that his inner beast seemed to come to attention in the elder blonde’s company. It was rather odd as he had never felt the beast stir in any other manner than being blood thirsty on the full moon.

Finding out the younger Malfoy had no desire to become a Death Eater was an even bigger shock. Seeing how he acted around and treated anyone who wasn’t a Pureblood, especially with what he called Hermione in their second year, made Remus wonder why he acted that way if he didn’t believe in their goals.

 

“What are you going to do when Voldemort finds out Draco has run away? He’s going to take it out on you, especially since you have been trying for the last month and a half to delay his initiation.” Remus asked the question that Harry had yet to ask.

“I do not know; it will be dealt with once it comes up. I will not be able to get out of receiving the Cruciatus curse but I have a supply of potions that Severus makes for me every week to counteract any spell cast upon me during those meetings.” Lucius was willing to endure anything to keep his son safe. He may not have wanted to marry Narcissa, nor does he feel anything but contempt for the woman, but the best thing to come out of the arranged marriage was his son. 

“I don’t want you to get hurt because of me!” Draco exclaimed when his father so casually referred to suffering the Crucio because of him.

“You’re my son, Draco. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to keep you safe, even if it means suffering from that spell.” Lucius informed his son.

“I can find out if he suspects anything, whether it’s safe to go to the next meeting you’re called to or not.” Harry informed the elder wizard.

“Harry, I thought you had learned how to block him out of your mind last year when you resumed your Occlumency lessons with Professor Snape?” Remus asked.

“I did, but I also learned that if I concentrated enough that I could sneak into his mind without him knowing.” 

“What are you on about, Potter?” Draco asked, looking at his year mate with a confused look.

“I’m connected to Voldemort through the scar on my head. Before I learnt to block him out, he was able to pull me into his mind and feed me false images. That’s how my godfather died in our fifth year. Voldemort had sent me a vision showing that he had kidnapped Sirius and was torturing him because he refused to get him the prophecy.” Harry explained.

“I didn’t know that the vision was false because I hadn’t yet mastered Occlumency. I first started getting the visions in fourth year during the Tri-wizard tournament, but they came more frequently during fifth year and I’ll admit I didn’t even try the exercises that Professor Snape told me to do every night before bed.”

“My stupidity cost the life of my godfather because I was too stubborn to trust Professor Snape. If I’d concentrated harder instead of slacking off the I would either never have gotten that vision or I would have been able to tell the difference between it being true or fake. Even though I had found out about the extent of Dumbledore’s manipulations last year I was determined to learn Occlumency so that he could never get into my head again.”

“Harry, I really wish you would stop blaming yourself for Sirius’ death. You had Umbridge and Dumbledore to contend with that year, from your past experiences with Severus it’s no wonder you didn’t trust him. I’m just glad you listened last year and mastered it, though I’m not happy about you purposefully sneaking into his mind to spy on him.” Remus admonished.

“I don’t do it all the time, I only do it when he has been quiet for too long. A quiet Voldemort does not bode well for anyone.” Was Harry’s reply as he looked at his honorary godfather with a sheepish look.

“If you feel comfortable enough to go into his mind the next time he calls a meeting then do it. I’m not called to all of the meetings but he will call one as soon as Narcissa tells him that Draco has left.” 

“Alright, let me know when Narcissa finds out that Draco is gone and I’ll look into it. Now, over to you Remus, what happened at Hogwarts today?” Harry changed the topic because he saw how uncomfortable Draco was becoming with the conversation.

“Well, like we suspected, Dumbledore is still not impressed with your lack of cooperation. When the two Order members who were in charge of following you around Diagon Alley turned up to inform him that you had managed to give them the slip he was livid.”

“That man has never liked not being in control, the fact that you are rebelling against him is just going to make him madder and it’s only a matter of time before he gets either Severus or I to let slip about you no longer being at your relative’s house.” Lucius informed them.

“Hang on a minute, I received a letter from Dumbledore yesterday demanding that I return to my relatives because Voldemort had found out I was no longer there. He said that Professor Snape had told him of Voldemort’s knowledge and that he had yet to issue any orders.” Harry told them.

“Voldemort isn’t concentrating on you at the moment, he knows you have no training so he is concentrating on gathering more followers at the moment. He is recruiting the seventh year students whose parents are Death Eaters and he has sent several of them out to try and sway the Vampires.” Lucius informed them.

“He already gained most of the werewolf packs thanks to Greyback and he has nearly all the giants on his side. He tried getting the Goblins but all they care about is money, not the fickle affairs of wizards. He got the Dementors when he broke his loyal followers out of Azkaban.”

“Well that’s more information than I’ve been given by the Order. I was sent out last year to try and gain the trust of the werewolves but Greyback had already gotten to them and those who hadn’t sided with the dark refused to fight in a battle for wizards who treated them as nothing more than mindless beasts.” Remus added.

“I’m tired of information being kept from me, especially when it involves me. Looks like there will be some things that we’ll have to do before school starts up. Mr. Malfoy, will you be able to get Professor Snape to come here? I’m really hoping that he’ll help us out and not turn us down just because he doesn’t like me. The information we have the better.” Harry asked as he summoned a piece of parchment and his self-inking quill.

 

From the astonished looks he received from the other wizards over his little display of wandless magic, he was curious as to their reaction when they found out the extent of his ability to perform the rare art. Right now there were more important things to be worrying about, he’d leave the explanations till later when/if Professor Snape turned up.


	5. The Potions Master

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
**Warnings:** Slash, violence, mentions of child abuse and language. Alcohol consumption.  
**Pairings:** HP/SS, DM/BZ, LM/RL, FW/AJ, GW/OW

I wish I was a Glow Worm,  
A Glow Worm’s never glum.  
‘Cos how can you be grumpy,  
When the sun shines out your bum!!

**Chapter Five:** The Potions Master

 

A week had passed since Harry, Remus and the Malfoy’s had arrived at Potter Manor. After the initial meeting in the library, Harry had finally gone on a tour of the manor being able to access all but one room. For some reason he was having trouble unlocking the room in question, even Remus had no idea why the room was inaccessible. No matter how many unlocking charms they threw at the door its lock refused to budge. Maybe Snape would know a way in.

Speaking of his Potions Professor, he had yet to give an answer to the letter that Lucius had sent him. He had sent a reply stating that he would think about the request but he had not yet given an answer. Harry was starting to give up hope that he would have any help from the stoic man, considering who he worked for and the past interactions between his father and the head of Slytherin. 

The friendship between he and the younger Malfoy was slow going but at least it was getting somewhere. Harry had never realised that the blonde had a sense of humour, at least one that didn’t stem from the misfortune of others. The younger Malfoy had a very sarcastic way of complimenting people, he somehow managed to make it sound polite and derogatory at the same time. It greatly clashed with Harry’s dark sense of humour, which was cause for some very Spirited conversations between the pair.

On another note, the interactions between Remus and Lucius were rather frustrating. The blonde aristocrat attempted to be nonchalant in the werewolf’s presence but the two younger wizards noticed the elder Malfoy’s interest in the ex-marauder. Remus on the other hand was finding it harder to try and hide his inner beasts interest in Lucius Malfoy of all people. He still wasn’t sure why his animal side was so interested in the aristocrat, he was, however, noticing that the closer the days got to the full moon the more enticing the blonde seemed to smell.

Remus had confided these discoveries to his honorary godson who had then proceeded to do a little study session in the library. Three hours and six books later found Harry with only one solid lead, Lucius Malfoy was Remus Lupin’s mate. That was going to be fun to explain, especially seeing as the two men had, technically, only known each other for a week.

Even more interesting was the news about the Order, with his family home being unplottable no owl was able to reach him, other than Hedwig. Apparently that didn’t go over too well with the headmaster when every letter he tried to send to the young wizard returned un-opened. According to Remus, who had been called to two meetings that week, Dumbledore was getting angrier with every letter he received back. Thankfully the old coot had no idea that Remus was staying with Harry, who knew what kind of scheme he would come up with involving Remus.

It was quite amusing to hear of the rants the old man kept spewing out at the Order meetings, most Order members were on his side but there were a few that sided with Harry. Those members were the Weasley twins, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Nymphadora Tonks and surprisingly Professor McGonagall. Harry had been positive that she would side with Dumbledore, but what Harry didn’t know, until recently, was that she was quite vociferous in her belief that Harry should never have been placed in the care of his mother’s muggle relatives. There were other members of the Order who were loyal to the Potters as opposed to Albus, Harry didn’t know any of them personally but it was nice to know that at least two of the Weasley’s hadn’t betrayed him.

With unequivocal proof that the twins did support him, Harry would be able to attain their help much easier. He knew that they were working on some new products, ones they weren’t planning on selling to the general population. There were a few of their current stock that could be useful in a fight. Harry planned to stock up before going back to Hogwarts, each member of the DA would have a supply. The Peruvian Darkness Powder would come in handy if any of them found themselves in the company of Death Eaters, or anyone they didn’t want to find out about their meetings.

Harry was trying to think of a place to hold the meetings, the room of requirement was a big no considering it was too obvious. He needed somewhere secret and secure, preferably somewhere that had its own wards that Harry would be able to build on. From what Harry had read on wards, creating them where there aren’t any was a real bitch to accomplish. He did have several places in mind but he wouldn’t be able to scope them out ‘til the school year started. He had never been more thankful for his father’s cloak, though he would need to be extra careful seeing as Weasley knew his usual route through the school and Dumbledore would be on the lookout for him at night.

He had already outlined a lot of what he wanted to accomplish once school started, thankfully with Lucius on the Board of Governors there were certain school rules that Harry didn’t know about. If a student asked for a resorting, then the headmaster must allow it. In the end it was up to the Hat to decide whether or not the student asking for a resorting was actually eligible for one. Seeing as the Hat was determined to sort Harry into Slytherin his first year, he knew it would accept his request.

Being in Slytherin would provide Harry with two benefits. One: He would be free of Dumbledore’s little spies that are in abundance in Gryffindor. Two: It would help Harry greatly in his endeavour to gain the trust and support of the Slytherin’s that didn’t want anything to do with Voldemort.

He would wait a few weeks for everyone to settle into their classes before Harry would start letting out the word of the DA meetings. He would need to find out who of the previous group would follow him and who are loyal to Dumbledore. He had already spent a good portion of the last few days figuring out a new way to keep in contact with the other members. The fake Galleons that Hermione had charmed in their fifth year would not do. 

 

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

 

“What are you up to, Harry?” Harry looked to the door and saw Remus in the doorway.

“Hey Remus. I’m just working on the plans for the DA meetings, I’ll be needing to teach all the Slytherin’s everything I covered in fifth year. With the help of previous members, I’ll be able to catch them up a lot easier.”

“Do you want some help?” Remus asked him as he walked over to the desk in his godson’s room.

“Yea, the more help the better.”

“Alright, what do you want me to do?”

“If you can write down whatever spells you know that are not covered at school, that would be a great help.” Was the reply from Harry as he handed Remus a piece of parchment and a spare quill.

“Of course.”

 

The next hour passed in a comfortable silence as the two wizards worked on their tasks. It was interrupted by a knock on the frame of the open door. Both wizards looked up to see Lucius standing there with a letter in his hand.

 

“I’ve just heard back from Severus; the earliest time he can get away from the school is this Saturday. Apparently Dumbledore has been gracious enough to give Hogwarts esteemed Potions Master the weekend off.”

“That’s great, how is he going to explain his absence though?” Harry asked as he stood from his chair.

“He has informed the headmaster that he is going to be collecting potions ingredients and will be unreachable. Seeing as Severus usual collects his ingredients from isolated areas, Dumbledore will have no way of reaching him and will have no cause for suspicion.” Lucius explained.

“Ok, I’ll ask Harper to get a room ready for Professor Snape’s arrival. Finally, some progress.”

“Don’t expect too much, Harry. We won’t know if he’ll help until he gets here and we can explain what is going on.” Remus reminded him.

“I know, it’s just… most of my plans are centred on him helping us.”

“I know cub; we only have three days to wait ‘til we find out if he’ll help. I know he doesn’t like taking orders from Dumbledore any more than he does taking them from Voldemort. He may just surprise us and want to help out.”

“On a completely unrelated topic, I’ve been wondering why the hell do my family’s elves wear uniforms but the Malfoy one’s wear nothing but rags?” Harry asked the blonde.

“My father was the one who got rid of the uniform for our house elves before I was born. He was your typical stuck up pure-blood, he believed that the house elves should be treated in accordance to their station. Once my grandfather passed and my father took over as head of Malfoy Manor he had the elves uniforms changed to pillowcases.” Lucius explained to him.

“Well he sounds pleasant.” 

“He was a rather unpleasant man, he never had a nice thing to say to my mother and he belittled me at every turn. He ah, mysteriously died when I was in my third year at Hogwarts. I would have changed their clothing back when I had taken over as head but by then I had already been approached by Dumbledore to be a spy for his little order.” Lucius explained further.

“You needed the image that it gave you, if you put them back into their original uniform you would appear weak and the Death Eaters would have a field day with you.” Harry added.

“I learned at a young age how to blend in, it made my transition into the Death Eater ranks a lot smoother. When Voldemort wanted a Potions Master that was actually good at their art he had me personally recruit Severus. Dumbledore thought it a good idea, two spies meant more information.”

“Severus will do anything to get away from both men, that includes helping you Mr. Potter. He may hate your father and he may dislike you but he hates Dumbledore and Voldemort more.”

“Well, come Saturday we’ll know. Anyway, Remus and I need to get back to what we were doing.”

“I’ll let you get back to it then; I do need to run a few errands at the Ministry. I’ll see the pair of you tomorrow, the last I saw Draco he was still holed up in the library.” Lucius replied as he got up from his position on Harry’s bed and made his way to the door.

 

Harry and Remus went back to their previous work as the elder Malfoy left to say goodbye before leaving for the Ministry. He had an image to uphold, it would be difficult to do once Voldemort found out about his loyalties. The plus side to that occurrence was that he would finally be rid of Narcissa, she may be Draco’s mother but she was an unfeeling woman who had more pleasure in organising party’s then in her own son’s life. From the outside it appeared as though Lucius was the uncaring parent but it was the opposite. Lucius was the one who spent most of his time with the Malfoy heir, while Narcissa was out at social events, Lucius was at home caring for his son. He had made a promise the day his son was born, he refused to be the uncaring, cold-hearted man that his father was to him as a child. Lucius made up for Draco’s mothers lack of love by spoiling him, which was probably not such a good idea but at least his son knew love growing up.

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

_Gred & Forge,_

_Hey guys, I’m writing this letter in the hopes that the pair of you will be able to help me out with a certain endeavour of mine. I’ve heard, from inside sources, that you two are a select few who do not side with the other members of the Order of Flying Chickens. If you are able to get in contact with anyone else that are on my side, I would greatly appreciate it._

_I would like to invest more money into a small side project I would like you both to be a part of. Seeing as the main goal is to cause mayhem and panic amongst the Death Eater ranks I’m pretty sure you will both enjoy it. It’s time to put the full extent of your abilities to the test, not to mention having a lot of fun in doing so._

_If you are free this weekend I would like to have a meeting with the pair of you to discuss this further, just send a reply back with Hedwig. I’ll pop into the shops floo and bring you to my current location, make sure to have a list of what you have in stock that can be useful in the upcoming war._

_Regards, your silent partner._

 

Harry looked at the completed letter before placing it into an envelope and giving it to Hedwig.

“Hey girl, take this to the Weasley twins and stick around for a reply please.” Hedwig gave him an affectionate nip on his hand before flying out of the open bedroom window.

 

There were only two days left before his Potions Professor was due to turn up at the Manor. Harry and Remus had spent the remainder of the previous day finishing up the plans for the DA meetings, they had managed to cover most of what Harry wanted to teach. If everything went as planned, he may look into becoming the Defence teacher at Hogwarts once the war was over.

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

“Look Gred, it seems our help is required.”

“Indeed Forge, let’s get started.”

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

“I have called this meeting today to further discuss the matter of Harry Potter.” Dumbledore stood at the head of the table in the Kitchen at number 12 Grimmauld Place, the only members that were present were those that are loyal to him only, the ones that had openly voiced their opinion against his handling of Potter were left out of the loop.

“That boy needs to be tracked down and put into his place.” Alastor Moody suggested.

“I have been unable to track his whereabouts, every letter I send is returned undelivered and all tracking spells have been unsuccessful. Harry grandfather, Harold Potter, made his family home unplottable and it is well warded.” Albus informed them.

“Even if we somehow found the Potter Manor we would not be able to penetrate the wards without being invited inside by the head of the house. With Harry refusing to listen to me, that is likely not going to be happening anytime soon.” The headmaster added.

“We need to put tracking spells on his little followers, it’s only a matter of time before he contacts one of them. Once we have tracked them to Potters location we can collapse the wards ourselves. Isn’t your eldest a curse breaker, Molly?” Moody interjected.

“He is, however we have been unable to get in contact with him since the last meeting he attended and voiced his displeasure in us trying to get Harry to see reason. He feels we should leave him alone instead of trying to get him back under the control of the Order.” Arthur Weasley informed them. 

 

It seemed that all of their children, bar the two youngest (and Percy), were against the Orders treatment of Harry, they all believed that he should be left alone and continuously voiced the obviousness of Harry now being seventeen and no longer under anyone’s control. The twins had even started to prank the other Order members who agreed with Dumbledore’s heavy handiness when it came to the welfare of their secret partner. Their behaviour got to the point where they were now band from attending any Order meeting, their last prank had left their younger brother sporting silver and green streaked hair and every time he opened his mouth to say something negative about Harry he was forced to say ‘I love Slytherin’. The little prank had lasted three days and saw to the little traitor spending those days locked up in his room at The Burrow.

Charlie refused to help them in anyway saying that their involvement in Dumbledore’s bid to regain control of Harry would not end well for any of them. Bill’s displeasure over the matter stemmed from the Order members demanding he create wards on the Dursley’s house that would prevent Harry from so much as stepping out the front door. He had voiced his opinion on the matter and refused to answer any letter or floo call since. He was even on the verge of uninviting his parents from his wedding to Fleur which was supposed to occur that summer but was postponed till the next due to the war intensifying.

Minerva McGonagall had opted out of attending the meetings herself, stating that she had her lesson plans to perfect before the new school year started. She had even stopped her visits to Dumbledore’s office unless the matter was school related, Dumbledore was not a happy man after these turn of events.

Dumbledore became angrier every day, everything was not going how he had planned. Everything was perfect until the little Potter brat went and threw a wrench into his perfectly laid out plans. It didn’t help that Voldemort had been recruiting more Death Eaters over the last few months, he knew that quite a few Slytherin students would be marked before the summer was over.

“Whatever it takes, I want him back under my control before summer is over. Dismissed.”

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

Saturday finally arrived and with it came the arrival of Hogwarts resident Potions Master, Lucius had gone to the Leaky Cauldron to meet his fellow spy so he could show him the way to Potter Manor. Severus’ room for the weekend had already been set up by Harper. The potion room in the cellar had been fully stocked that Professor Snape would have something to do over the weekend when he wasn’t doing anything else. It also contained most of the potions ingredients that Severus would have spent that weekend collecting if he wasn’t going to the Manor.

Harry had asked Harper to bring a fresh pot of tea and some scones to the library, they would be spending the next few hours talking and Harry wanted to be comfortable. The library would supply that comfort.

Draco was once again curled up on his favourite lounge with yet another book. In the couple of weeks that they had been residing in the Manor, the young Malfoy had managed to read his way through almost half of only one of the bookshelves. He had finished his summer homework a month ago so he had plenty of time to read.

The sound of the floo activating pulled Harry out of his musings. He looked up to see Severus Snape gracefully exit the fireplace, followed soon after by Lucius who was just as graceful in his exiting of the fireplace. Harry still managed to fall on his ass every time he used the floo.

 

“Potter, you are causing quite a stir within the Order.” They were the first words out of Severus’ mouth as he noticed the young wizard standing over near the window.

“That’s nothing unusual now is it?” Harry asked.

“Apparently not.”

“Please, sir, come and sit down and we can start talking about why I’ve asked for you to come here.” 

“Alright, Potter. Why am I here?” Snape asked as he took a seat next to his godson who had only just noticed his presence.

“Uncle, I didn’t realise you had arrived.” Draco said as he placed a marker in his book and put it on the table.

“If you’d take your head out of those books for longer than it takes for a bathroom break you’d notice things more often.” Harry told him with a smirk on his face.

“Shove it, Potter.”

“Can we get to why we are here?” Lucius asked as he poured himself a cup of tea.

“Of course, Remus would be here but he was called by Dumbledore earlier this morning so he’s off at Hogwarts. As for why I asked you here, I’m planning on ending the war without the help of Dumbledore.”

“Why do you insist on going against the headmaster? I thought you were his perfect little Golden Boy.” Severus asked the young wizard.

“I came across quite a few revelations last year. One of which was Dumbledore paying Ron Weasley, with money from my vault, to spy on me and report everything I did to him.”

 

Harry started his explanation with the betrayal of his so called friend, he went on to explain about how he found out about Lucius being a spy. For an hour they sat there with Harry filling the Potions Master in on everything they had organised and discussed over the last few weeks.

Severus sat and listened throughout the conversation, interjecting only when he deemed necessary. It seemed like the old fool has been lying through his teeth about what was really going on with the Potter boy. Not that Severus ever trusted the man anyway, he only ever did things that benefited himself, anyone else be damned.

 

“What do you want me to do then?” Severus asked once Harry had finished his story, at least the parts he wanted them to know.

“I need you to help me with the DA meetings, I’m planning on recruiting the Slytherin’s that won’t be joining Voldemort. They have as much right to defend themselves as everyone else.” Harry explained.

“I’ll also need your help with brewing potions for the war, Voldemort and his Death Eaters will not be merciful.”

“Do you have a place in mind for these meetings?” Severus asked him.

“I have a pretty good place in mind, I need to think on it some more.” Harry informed him.

“Let me know when you have decided where you want the meetings to be.” Severus told him.

“Well now that that is all sorted, I’ll let you get settled in. There is also a potions lab set up in the cellar for you to use, complete with most of the ingredients you had planned on collecting this weekend.” Harry told the man as he rose from his seat.

“Thank you, Potter. I’ll head to my room now before heading to the cellar, if one of you could show me the way.”

 

Draco volunteered for the job of showing his godfather around the Manor while the other two wizards went off to do their own things. Severus wasn’t really sure what he had gotten himself into but he was sure that the results would frustrate the headmaster to no end, something he greatly looked forward to.


	6. End of Summer

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
 **Warnings:** Slash, violence, mentions of child abuse and language. Alcohol consumption.  
 **Pairings:** HP/SS, DM/BZ, LM/RL, FW/AJ, GW/OW

Isn’t it freakin’ frustrating when you’re the only one who can  
see how evil and manipulative someone is, and everyone else is blind to it?

**Chapter Six:** End of Summer

 

“Harry! Pleasure to see you – “

“- Our little investor.”

 

Harry was greeted rather enthusiastically as he stepped out of the Floo at Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. The twins had closed the shop down for the rest of the day so they could go with Harry to his family Manor. They had to run quite a bit of interference with their parents, they had wanted the boys to come to the Burrow for dinner but they had to lie a little and get their significant others to vouch for them. They would have a lot of explaining to do but at least they would be able to tell Harry that he had another two allies.

 

“Hey guys, how’s business?” Harry asked after he hugged them.

“It’s booming, even more so than last year.” Fred told him.

“It seems that everyone needs more of a laugh now, with Voldemort being so quiet everyone is on edge.” George added.

“I’m one of them, we’re not too sure yet what he is working on but I’m sure it doesn’t bode well for anyone.”

“Ok, we don’t want depressing thoughts here today. We’ll save that for when we get to your place.” George said as he picked up the bag on the desk that contained the paper work that Harry asked for.

“Alright, to get through you need to say Potter Manor and the password is telly.” Harry informed them as they moved over to the fireplace.

“Remus will be waiting for you when you go through.”

 

Fred grabbed a handful of Floo powder first and stepped into the grate, in a flash of green he was on his way. Looking around, once he arrived, he noticed that the room he had arrived in was a rather large library. It was nowhere near the size of the Hogwarts library but it was still rather large. He barely had time to great Remus, who was standing by a wall covered in windows, when the Floo activated behind him and his brother exited. Harry came through not long after and ushered them towards the lounges near Remus.

Just as the four wizards sat down, a house elf popped into the room and set down a tray with tea and biscuits on it before popping back out. Harry poured himself a cup of tea and added a bit of milk before sitting back in his chair.

“So Fred, did you bring that list I asked for?” 

“Yeah, it’s here in my bag. We wrote down all the defensive products that we have, as well as the ones we’ve been working on.” Fred told him as he picked his bag up from where he had placed it.

“We also have some offensive ones that we were thinking of making, we’re just having a bit of trouble with the potion side of it.” George added as his brother handed the parchment over to Harry.

“The potion part won’t be a problem; Professor Snape has agreed to help us with our little endeavour.” Harry informed the twins as he read over the list.

“That’s great. So, what’s this little endeavour that you have in mind?” Fred asked.

“I want to start the DA up again, Dumbledore is quite content to sit on his ass and let an untrained wizard to fight this war. I plan to win this war and for that to happen I need to be prepared. I know that Hogwarts will be the battle field, Voldemort is that psychotic he won’t care if the school is full of children. If he can conquer Hogwarts then nowhere is safe, he’ll have all of Europe in his control. Once Hogwarts falls it won’t be long before the ministry is taken, I plan on stopping him in his tracks.” Harry told them.

“What can we do to help?” George asked.

“I need you two to work with Professor Snape, show him your ideas and then develop them into useable weapons. Then I’ll need you to come to Hogwarts and explain what they are for and how to use them.” He informed them.

“I’ll be the Defence teacher this year so it will be easier for you to get to the school by using the Floo in my office.” Remus informed the twins.

“Well, you’ll be a right side better than Umbridge ever was, at least the students will learn something and they won’t be tortured during detention.” Fred said as he pulled a piece of parchment and a self-inking quill from his bag so he could right everything down.

“Professor Snape is here for the weekend if you two want to get started, I need to go and do some work on my potions essay that he had the pleasure of assigning all the sixth years. It’s to do with the higher level of potions we’ll be doing as seventh years, your admittance into his seventh year potions class is judged on how well you understand the processes.” Harry told them.

“Yeah, we did that too. The potions in seventh year are more volatile than any other you learn, the Wolfsbane potion will be on the syllabus. Along with several other potions that the professor created like the anti-cruciatus that helps with the after effects of the cruciatus curse. With Fred and I not finishing our seventh year I’m not sure what others you’ll be learning.” George told him as he prepared himself another cup of tea.

“The syllabus is a lot different from when I was in school but there are still potions that I learnt in my seventh year that Severus still teaches now.” Remus added.

“Well, we’ll let you get to it Harry. If you can get someone to show us to where Professor Snape is then we will be on our way.” 

 

Harry called for Harper and asked him to lead the twins to the room in the cellar that had been set up for Snape’s use over the weekend. After the twins left, Remus excused himself and went off to do some more reading.

Harry was left on his own in the library, he summoned the parchment that had the instructions for his potions essay on it. He got up from his seat, after placing the parchment on the table beside his seat, and headed to the section of bookshelves that held the books on potions. He was going to need all the reference he could get his hands on if he was going to get his essay done. Only Professor Snape would assign a three-foot essay for the summer holidays.

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

“Hey Potter, you up for some company?”

 

Harry looked up from the potion book he was reading to see Draco standing at the door with his school bag in his arms. Looked like the younger Malfoy wanted to study.

 

“Sure, Malfoy.”

“You working on your potions essay?” Malfoy asked as he sat on the chair opposite Harry.

“Yeah, I can’t believe Snape would assign us a three-foot long essay for the summer. I thought last year’s summer assignment was bad.” Harry replied as he wrote down a few more points on his parchment.

“It’s the way he is, if you can’t do the assignment he sets then you’re not good enough for his class. Weasley is just one example of that.”

“He only passed half his classes because Hermione was helping him, I’m surprised he made it into potions last year.” Harry added.

“From what you told me about the little deal between the Weasel and Dumbledore, I reckon he’ll be in this year’s potions class just so he can keep an eye on you for the old coot.”

“You’re probably right, Dumbledore will make sure he’s in all my classes. What he doesn’t know is that I dropped Divination and took up Arithmancy, I’m hoping Dumbledore doesn’t discover that little bit until it’s too late for Weasley to change classes.”

“I hope he’s not in Arithmancy, I take that class.” Draco told him as he grabbed one of Harry’s reference books.

“Hey! Get your own books.”

“You’ve got plenty, besides this is the one I need for my essay.”

 

The two young wizards continued with their school work, playfully bickering back and forth with each other.

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

“We have the Peruvian Instant Darkness powder, Decoy Detonators and the Jinx Off kit as defensive products. We have been working on expanding that list recently and were hoping that you could help us with the basics.” Fred told the potion master.

“We also have some ideas for some offensive products, some of which require potions. We have an idea as to what we want it to do but we don’t quite know how to go about making the potion required.” George added.

“What offensive ones did you have in mind.”

“Well Harry said that You-Know-Who now has Werewolves and Vampires on his side.” Fred started.

“He does, he spent last year recruiting most of the werewolf population in Europe. He has only just recently formed the alliance with the vampires.” Severus confirmed.

“Right, well we were thinking of coming up with a sort of silver mist potion to use against the werewolves. If You-Know-Who attacks on a full moon, we are screwed unless we can come up with a way to stop them in their tracks.” George explained.

“We also have a potion in mind to deal with the vampires, we don’t want to use a spell because that will most likely make things harder for our side to see anything. We want a way to kill the vampires without causing a problem for the good guys.” Fred added in.

“The silver mist potion should be fairly easy to create, however, the one for the vampires may be a little harder. We will need to find a way to make it work without blinding anyone on our side, that will take a little longer to create.” Severus informed them.

“Well if anyone can help us with this then it’s you, two heads are better than one but three makes things go quicker.” George said as he grabbed some parchment and an ink pot and quill.

“Let’s get started on the basics, what ingredients will be best suited for the potion.” Severus told them as he conjured a stool to sit on.

 

The Potions Professor may not have liked the Weasley twin’s pranks, having reminded him too much of the ones pulled on him in school, but he did admire their skill with potions. They may have used their talents to wreak havoc within Hogwarts but they are two very bright young men and have the potential for more concerning potions. He knew it would never happen, they were too interested in practical jokes to want to do anything else. 

It was a waste of talent as far as he was concerned, however, it looked as though their love for pranks was about to pull off in regards to helping out greatly in the upcoming war. Voldemort tended to under estimate anyone he deemed beneath him and the Weasley twins fell into that category quite well, which was why Harry intended to use their abilities to their full potential. Voldemort and the Death Eaters wouldn’t know what hit them.

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

Remus still didn’t know what to do about the situation he found himself in, other than Harry no one knew that Lucius Malfoy was his mate. He didn’t know how the blonde aristocrat would react if he found out he was the mate of a monster. Years of hate slung at him from other wizards who were clued in on his monthly condition tended to leave a person weary of people’s reaction towards him.

He had tried to have relationships over the years, the closest he got was a seventh year Ravenclaw boy back in school who only slept with him so that he could add werewolf to the list of who he had slept with. The Ravenclaw boy had lived up to his house legacy and had figured out what Remus was. The seventh year had approached Remus with the knowledge and managed to manipulate the affection starved boy into a one-night stand that had left him feeling dirty and used.

After that he had shied away from any type of intimacy, not knowing what the motive was behind the advances. It led to a very lonely life but it kept his fragile heart in one piece. Losing James and Lilly to the war, as well as Sirius, did a number on him as well. The ministry not allowing him to take custody of Harry was the last straw on the camel’s back, Remus ended up locking himself away from the rest of the world and was well on his way to becoming a hermit when Dumbledore contacted him about the post at Hogwarts.

With promise of the monthly supply of the Wolfsbane potion, he had jumped at the chance to interact with people again. The fear of turning on the students was ever present and it kept him vigilant. That one single lapse in his judgment nearly cost the lives of his friend’s son and friends. He had quit before the parents demanded his removal, or worse his death. He would not let that mistake happen again, nor would he allow himself the happiness he felt he didn’t deserve.

His mate deserved someone normal, someone who didn’t turn into a blood thirsty beast the second the full moon showed itself in the night sky. As much as he would love to feel that completeness a magical creature feels upon being with their mate, he knew he couldn’t subject the elder Malfoy to his inner beast. The man deserved better than that, he deserved better than Remus. He would just continue to wallow in his self-loathing, living in denial that he could ever be worthy of anyone’s love.

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

Hermione had returned from her holiday with her parents, she had asked them if they could visit Europe for their summer vacation. She had wanted to introduce them to someone who was rather special in her life and she was hoping to get their approval, especially with the age difference between them. Her parents had gotten along rather well with him and it had resulted in a rather fun and informative holiday.

She was now making her way to Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes to meet up with Harry. The troublesome twin’s shops made for a safer meeting spot because Harry could just Floo straight in without having to travel half the alley to get there. They had much to discuss and she was rather eager to find out what his plans were for the new school year. At least this year she wouldn’t have to help Ronald with his school work, it had begun to be rather tiresome for her to keep helping him.

Upon entering the store, Hermione found it to be filled with customers. Mostly students from Hogwarts wanting to stock up before school started, especially the younger years who wouldn’t be able to visit Hogsmeade.

As the young witch made her way through the throng of customers, she was finally able to spot one of the twins. Whichever one it was subtly pointed his head to the back room that also served as their office and also house the Floo.

As Hermione made her way towards the door leading to where she believed Harry to be, Hermione failed to notice the red head who was watching her every move. As soon as she walked through the door, said red head was quick to follow, only to be blocked by his older brothers who managed to steer the irate wizard away from his destination.

Hermione didn’t see Harry when she first entered the room so she moved further in hoping to spot him hiding in a corner somewhere. She failed to notice the boy saviour until he was right behind her, he poked her in the back and made her jump and let out a rather undignified squeal.

 

“Harry! You’re an asshole, you almost gave me a heart attack.” Hermione exclaimed.

“I’m sorry, ‘Mione. I just couldn’t help myself.” The young wizard said after he managed to stop laughing.

“You have been hanging around Fred and George way too much, you’re starting to pick up their bad habits.” 

“It’s all in good fun. Besides you need to learn to pay attention to your surroundings instead of walking into a semi-dark room you have never been in before. Anyone could be waiting for you.” Harry told her.

“Sorry, I wasn’t thinking. I was just excited to see you, I’m really glad you are okay and that Professor Dumbledore hasn’t managed to get you back to Privet Drive.”

“Not for a lack of trying, he has his little Order lackey’s always on the lookout for me. Last time I was here he had two of them following me but I managed to give them the slip.” Harry informed her as they both took a seat at the table.

“I’m sorry I didn’t get to send you that book I said that I’d send. I was busy over the summer and I completely forgot.”

“It’s okay, Hermione. I found a book in the library at my family home, it explained everything I needed to know. It also filled me in on a few other laws I didn’t know about.”

“Your family home?” 

“Yeah, I have a lot to explain. It wasn’t safe to put any of this into a letter to you just in case Dumbledore was monitoring your mail.”

“That’s okay, Harry. You can tell me everything now.” Hermione assured him.

“Well for me to tell you everything we need to go to my home. It wouldn’t surprise me if Dumbledore had listening spells in this shop.”

“Alright, then you can show me this library you were talking about.”

“Do you ever think of anything other than books?” Harry asked her as he led her towards the Floo.

“Of course I do; I just know what to expect from the library of a Pure-blood family. The one at Grimmauld place was extensive and I never got around to reading even a quarter of them.” Hermione told him.

“Trust me, the library in Sirius’ home doesn’t even compare to the size of the one in my family Manor. Even Draco said that his family library was not even that big.”

“Wait, do you mean Draco Malfoy?” Hermione asked him, as far as she knew the two wizards hated each other.

“Don’t worry, I’ll explain everything when we get to the Manor. You’ll find what I have to say to be very interesting. Remus is there as well so you will be able to catch up with him as well.”

 

With her curiosity peaked, Hermione followed Harry’s instructions on how to get to his family home. She could tell that the conversation to follow would be very enlightening indeed. She couldn’t wait to find out more.


	7. Hogwarts

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
 **Warnings:** Slash, violence, mentions of child abuse and language. Alcohol consumption.  
 **Pairings:** HP/SS, DM/BZ, LM/RL, FW/AJ, GW/OW

I’m pretty sure if I smacked the stupid out of you, there wouldn’t be anything left.

**Chapter Seven:** Hogwarts

 

The last two weeks of the summer holidays seemed to fly by for Harry. Hermione had received permission from her parents to spend the rest of the summer at Harry’s Manor, she had spent most of that time in the library reading as many books as she could get her hands on. She also got along rather well with Draco and the pair had spent many an hour having heated debates and spirited conversations about varying wizarding traditions, including the treatment of House Elves.

Remus was still refusing to tell Lucius about him being the werewolf’s mate, even though Harry had threatened on multiple occasions to lock them in a room together until his adopted godfather admitted the truth. Lucius was starting to wonder what was going on, Remus refused to stay in the same room as him if they were the only occupants. Remus would make up some flimsy excuse then quickly flee the room.

Severus on the other hand spent most his time at the Manor locked away in the potion room working on the new potions that the Weasley twins had come up with. He was in his element when it came to creating new potions and the twins were a great help.

Voldemort was still quiet, Harry had yet to use the link between them to find out what the dark wizard was up to. Whatever it was must be more important than whether or not Draco had joined the Death Eater ranks. Narcissa had found out a week previous that Draco was not where he said he was going to be.

She had Floo’d the Zabini residence, where Draco had told her he would be spending the summer, only to learn from Mrs. Zabini that he had never turned up. Blaise had tried to cover for his friend but it hadn’t worked out well when his mother had found out that he had lied about Draco’s whereabouts.

Once Narcissa had found out that her son had lied to her she had gone to Lucius to demand he find their wayward son and drag him to the next Death Eater meeting so that he could be initiated. Lucius had tried to stall as long as he could but he was running out of options. It was only a matter of time before he was called before Voldemort to be tortured for his son’s insolence.

On the other hand, Dumbledore had been more active. He had gone to the Ministry to try and have Harry claimed as unfit to make decisions for himself, thankfully he had Lucius running interference and making things difficult. It was only a matter of time before he went to The Daily Prophet with some farfetched story to discredit him and get him back under the manipulative old coots control. 

Severus had come to him after the last meeting with a warning to try and steer clear of the youngest Weasley. He had only heard part of the conversation between her parents and Dumbledore but he heard enough to put him on alert and make him warn the young wizard. 

Harry knew to trust the man by now and heeded the warning. He’d be sure to steer clear of her at all times and he’d check his food and drink before consuming anything. He wouldn’t put it past them to try and use a love potion on him and try to control him through Ginny. He was beyond Happy that his request for a re-sorting had been granted, the Sorting Hat would finally get its way and he would no longer have to share a dorm with Weasley. He would miss Neville, even though he wasn’t quite sure where the accident prone wizard’s allegiance lay.

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

The night of August 31st found Harry in him room packing the last of his things into his school trunk. He had been taught a spell by Snape to hide the true nature of an item, he had used it to disguise several of the books he had taken from the Potter library with the intention of using them for the DA.

He had also used a spell on the Marauders Map that would make it impossible to be used by anyone that he had not keyed into the spell. The last thing any of them needed was for the map to fall into the wrong hands, especially with Ron knowing how to use it.

 

“Have you finished packing yet?” Hermione stood at the door to Harry’s room, her voice had startled the wizard and he had dropped one of his books on his bare foot.

“Almost. Shit, that bloody hurt.” Harry replied as he hopped around on one foot as he rubbed the sore spot on the other.

“Sorry Harry, I didn’t mean to startle you.” Hermine said through a chuckle as she walked further into the room.

“Sure you didn’t, that’s going to bruise.”

“Oh don’t be such a baby, the book isn’t that big.”

“Yeah, well it wasn’t your foot that it fell on now was it?” Harry asked as he picked up said book and placed it into his trunk.

“On a completely different note to my sore foot, you want to tell me who this mysterious bloke is?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Hermione asked with a smug look on her face.

“Oh come on, Hermione. Is it Viktor? I bet it is Viktor.”

“As a matter of fact it isn’t. Viktor and I do still write each other but we don’t have that kind of relationship, besides he just asked his girlfriend to marry him. They met not long after his return to Bulgaria, she’s a really nice witch.” Hermione told him.

“But I thought you were introducing your parents to your boyfriend, you said you were in Bulgaria.” 

“I was in Bulgaria, at the time I sent that letter to you. We were visiting Viktor because he wanted to introduce me to Ivet.”

“Okay, so if you were only in Bulgaria to visit Viktor than where were you staying for the summer?” Harry asked her, he was starting to get frustrated with the ring around Hermione was giving him.

“It’s really frustrating you, isn’t it? Me not giving you a straight answer?” Hermione asked him, she was having fun baiting him.

“We were in Romania.” Hermione finally relented.

“Romania? Who would you – wait, Charlie?” Harry asked her. The second eldest Weasley was the only person he knew resided in Romania.

“Yes.”

“For how long? He’s so busy at the Dragon Sanctuary that he can only ever get back here for a couple of the Order meetings.”

“Un-officially, since fifth year. Officially, since I turned seventeen.” Hermione explained.

“What do you mean, un-officially?” Harry asked her.

“I was only fifteen when we developed feelings for each other. Charlie refused to do anything about our mutual attraction until I became of age, so we spent those two years writing to each other so we could get to know each other better. We made our relationship status official on my seventeenth birthday.” Hermione explained.

“So you’ve been together, officially, for almost a year?”

“Yes, the only other person who knows is Bill. Charlie needed to talk to someone and Bill seemed the best one to go to. You know what Mrs. Weasley is like, she’d blow a gasket.”

“Well, Charlie is a nice guy so at least I know you’re in the right hands.”

“Naww, I love you too.”

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

“So, tell me again why we’re here so early?” Draco asked as he and his two other companions made their way onto the Hogwarts Express.

“Would you rather arrive late and be accosted by a gaggle of Weasley’s, or arrive early and get a compartment that we can ward so he can’t come in and annoy us?” Harry asked the irritated blonde as they walked into a compartment at the of the train.

“Good point.” Draco replied.

“It will be fun to see his face go red as he tries to figure out why he can’t get in.” Hermione added as she put her trunk on the rack above the seat.

“I’ll never pass up an opportunity to harass the Weasel.” Draco said as he sat on his seat.

“I wonder how long it will take him to realise I know about his little deal with Dumbledore?” Harry asked his companions.

“Seriously Harry? If his mind was a pasture, the sheep would starve.” Draco told him soundly.

 

The three teens spent the next hour and a half talking and joking about the irate red head that would soon be arriving. Harry had warded the door to their compartment and had made sure that a silencing spell was weaved into the door. It would be more fun trying to figure out what he was saying/yelling through the door.

By the time half ten came around the other Hogwarts students had started to show up. With all the noise and commotion going on in the train and on the platform, Harry was glad that he did put the silencing charm up. The Weasley’s had yet to turn up, like almost every year it seemed as though they would be running to catch the train.

 

“Crap, here he comes.” Harry called as he spotted his ex-friend.

“Here comes the fun.” Draco added.

“There are ten minutes till the train leaves, he hasn’t spotted us yet so he’ll most likely start from the front of the train and work his way back.” Hermione told them.

 

The two younger Weasley’s didn’t turn up until half an hour into the train ride, the racket from the rest of the train was blocked out by Harry’s spell so it took a while to notice that there were people knocking on the door. 

It was Draco who looked up and finally saw the Weasel and the Weaselette looking in through the window on the door. He gave them his usual Malfoy sneer and then got a smug grin on his face when Ron’s face went redder than his hair.

 

“The Weasel and Weaselette are here, just one look from me caused his face to go redder than his hair.” Draco told his companions.

 

Harry got up from his seat and went over to the door. He undid the locking charm on the door and opened far enough to poke his head through the gap.

 

“I’m sorry but whatever you are selling we’re not interested. I’m sure you can find someone else to sell yourself to.” With that said, Harry slammed the door shut in their stunned faces and replaced the silencing charm.

“I guess they didn’t take the hint; they’re still standing at the door.” Hermione pointed out once Harry sat back down.

“That’s nothing unusual, Weasley is cruelly depriving a village somewhere of its idiot.” Draco added.

“You know Draco, for someone who prides himself on being a pureblood you sure know a lot of muggle insults.” Harry said.

“Hey, they may not have magic but they have some hilarious comebacks. I may have bought a book and kind of studied it.” Draco admitted.

“What else have you got?” Hermione asked.

“Well I mostly learnt ways to insult Weasley without him knowing it. Let’s face it, that’s a pretty easy task to accomplish.” Draco told them.

“How about this one? You’re proof that evolution can go in reverse. And my personal favourite. I bet your brain feels as good as new, seeing that you never use it.”

“You spent way too much time in the library this summer.” Harry told him.

 

The three teens spent the rest of the train ride talking about the classes they had signed up for. Hermione had learned her lesson from third year and had gone with a lighter work load like she had the year before. 

Half way through the trip they were joined by Neville and Luna. Thankfully they were both on Harry’s side and were glad to help out with the DA club, as well as any problems with the two youngest Weasley’s.

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

The ride up to the castle was, surprisingly, uneventful. They weren’t sure where the two Weasley’s had disappeared to but Harry was sure that it wouldn’t bode well for him. It was a guarantee that Dumbledore will be wanting to see him after dinner, especially after he was left out of the loop for Harry’s re-sorting.

Harry’s re-sorting was one thing he had kept from Snape, so he would be sure to keep an eye on the man when the hat announced his new house. Neville and Luna both knew about his plan to be re-sorted, while Neville would miss having Harry in the Gryffindor tower he knew that if Harry was going to make any change, or stay out from under Dumbledore’s thumb, he would need to be in with the Slytherin’s.

Upon entering the Greta Hall, Harry followed Hermione to a seat at the Gryffindor table, once the first years were sorted Harry would be called up to be re-sorted. He would be front and centre for the look on Dumbledore’s face.

Professor McGonagall lead the first years up the centre of the hall between the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables. Like every year they looked small and nervous, Harry was sure he looked even worse than some of them looked.

 

“Now, as I call your name, you will come up here and place the Sorting hat on your head. Anderson, Michael.” Professor McGonagall’s voice called as the new first years stood nervously in front of the hall.

 

The young boy walked up to the stool and sat down before the hat was placed on his head. Dumbledore had been staring at Harry since the he first entered the hall with Hermione, the ever present twinkle that was in his eye was absent tonight. He didn’t seem impressed with Harry’s lack of care towards what Dumbledore seemed to think he should do. He had already handed the deputy headmistress a slip of parchment asking (demanding) that Harry come to his office after the feast.

 

“Zimmons, Alicia.”

“SLYTHERIN!”

 

The hat had finally sorted the last first year and McGonagall was about to roll up the scroll and put the hat and stool away, when she noticed more writing at the bottom of the list.

 

_Request for re-sorting granted – Harry Potter._

 

McGonagall walked over to the headmaster and showed him what was written at the bottom of the list of new first years. As the deputy headmistress, she was well aware of the school rules and knew that if the parchment had added Mr. Potters name onto it then he had gone to the school board of governors with a request to be re-sorted.

 

“Mr. Potter, what is the meaning of this?” Dumbledore asked as he stood with the scroll clutched in his now white knuckled hands.

“Why, whatever do you mean sir?” Harry asked innocently.

“Why is your name on the list of students to be sorted?” Dumbledore asked as he rose from his seat at the head table.

“According to the school rules, a student has the right to request a re-sorting from the school governors. If the request is granted, then the Headmaster cannot deny the re-sorting of the student in question. I made a formal request to the governors over the summer and they granted my request, hence why my name is on the list.” Harry explained as he made his way to the front of the hall.

 

The whole hall had gone silent and every student was watching as Harry sat down on the stool and placed the Sorting hat on his head. All the Gryffindor’s had weird looks on their faces and they were whispering loudly to each other, the two youngest Weasley’s had furious looks on their faces. The Hufflepuff’s looked indifferent and unsure of what was really going on, the Ravenclaw’s were curious and the Slytherin’s just sat there.

 

“Ah, Mister Potter. Finally decided that I was right and that you do belong in Slytherin?” The hat asked.

“Don’t get cocky; just sort me so I can have dinner then go to bed.” Harry told the hat.

“Alright, I still stand by what I said in your first year. You will do well in SLYTHERIN!” the hat shouted the last part so that the hall could hear it.

 

Harry stood up from the stool and took the hat off, after placing it back on the stool he turned around and faced the head table. Dumbledore’s face held a look of barely concealed fury and Severus looked shocked, a Potter in Slytherin was unheard of but considering what this particular Potter had accomplished in the six years he had been at Hogwarts it wasn’t really too much of a surprise.

He turned to face Professor McGonagall, he knew that she was in his corner so he gave her an apologetic smile and a small shrug of his shoulder, she just looked back at him with a proud smile on her face and ushered him to the Slytherin table.

The hall had erupted into chaos; the Gryffindor’s where shouting and Harry could see Ron and Ginny looking in his direction with scowls on their faces. He knew that this situation would lead to even more nagging from the pair and he was looking forward to using some of the twin’s new pranks on them in the coming months.

Dumbledore stood from his seat and calmed the students down before starting the feast. Throughout the meal the talk in the hall was centred on what had just happened, the students were unsure as to what was going on but they knew that this school year would definitely be different to any other.

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

Other than the little display at the beginning of dinner, the meal went by rather uneventful. Harry was subjecting to scrutinising looks from the other Slytherin students, he knew there would be a lot to explain when they got to the Slytherin common room.

Harry and Draco were one of the first students to stand once dinner had finished and the students were dismissed to their dorms, they had met up with Hermione at the doors to the Great Hall and were headed out when Harry’s name was called. The three students turned to look behind them and saw Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape heading towards them.

 

“Mr. Potter, I would like a word with you in my office, immediately.” Dumbledore said, all traces of the twinkle in his eyes were gone.

 

Harry turned back to Draco and Hermione and told them he would see them later, before he followed the headmaster and the other two professors towards Dumbledore’s office.

When they arrived at the stone gargoyle that guarded the headmaster’s office Dumbledore spoke the password and then led the other three up the winding staircase before opening the door. Dumbledore moved over to sit behind his desk and McGonagall and Severus sat down in front of it.

 

“Now, Mr. Potter. You will tell me why you asked for a re-sorting and you will also tell me where you have been over the summer, your aunt and uncle were very worried about you.” Dumbledore demanded.

“Let’s face it Headmaster, for anything that is not school related you have no say. I don’t need to tell you anything about what I did or where I was over the summer. And the whole part about the Dursley’s actually being worried about me is laughable at best.” Harry told him.

“If Voldemort had found out where you were over the summer he would have been able to kill you without any trouble.” The old man tried again.

“Headmaster, if you couldn’t find me over the summer then what makes you think Voldemort could have? I have spent the rest of my summer, since my birthday, living in peace.” Harry told them.

“I haven’t had my family beating or starving me for any slight they deemed punishable, which was pretty much just breathing. I haven’t had you keeping information from me nor have I had you telling me what to do.”

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I would like to go to bed. Professor Snape, can you please show me to the Slytherin common room as well as tell me the password?” Harry asked as he stood from his seat and headed to the door.

 

With a nod from the headmaster, Severus rose from his seat and followed Harry out of the room. The pair walked in silence for a good fifteen minutes before Severus decided to ask the question he had been wanting to ask the young wizard since he had been sorted.

 

“How did you know that the hat would place you into my house?”

“The hat wanted to place me into Slytherin in my first year but I talked it out of its decision.” Harry told him as they descended into the dungeons.

“Why did you? How did you?” Severus asked. A Potter in Slytherin was unheard of.

“I had met Draco and he hadn’t really endeared me to all things Slytherin. Not to mention that the first person in the wizarding world I meet, not including Hagrid, just so happens to be a boy who is being paid to be my friend. Of course at the time I didn’t know that.” Harry explained.

“Ronald told me that there wasn’t a witch or wizard who went bad that wasn’t in Slytherin and, being the impressionable kid I was, I believed him. It wasn’t until my third year, when I found out that the man who betrayed my parents was a Gryffindor, that I finally started to question that whole thing.”

“Slytherin’s, for the most part, are defined by the house they are in. Just because Salazar Slytherin had his own feelings towards people of lesser blood than him does not mean that every member of that house believes so.” Severus informed him.

“I kind of gathered that over the years I have been here. Slytherin’s are generally seen as evil just because of the house the hat sorted them into. I know there are some Slytherin’s whose families who want nothing to do with the war, like Blaise Zabini’s family. I get it, but the rest of the school doesn’t, that’s why I want to change that.”

“There are those whose parents are loyal Death Eaters but not all of them want to follow in their parent’s footsteps.” Severus told him.

The two wizards finally arrived at the entrance to the Slytherin common room.

 

“The password is Unity.” Severus told him.

“Okay, thank you Professor.” Harry said as he walked through the open entry way.

 

When he entered the Common room he noticed that it looked exactly the same as it did in his second year, Dark and Dismal. Walking further into the room, Harry saw Draco sitting on a couch in front of the roaring fire. Sitting next to him were Blaise Zabini, Pansy Parkinson and Theodore Nott. Both Draco and Lucius had assured Harry that the three mentioned had no intention what so ever in joining the Dark Lord. For that Harry was glad because he knew that Draco was in love with Blaise.

Harry walked over to the lounge and sat down next to Draco; the other Slytherin’s in the room had watched his progress and were staring at him as he sat down. The other three were about to say something about Harry sitting there before Harry interrupted.

 

“You owe me twenty Galleons,” 

“Damn. So what did the old codger want?” Draco asked as he handed over the money.

“He demanded that I tell him why I asked for a re-sorting as well as where I was over the summer; I don’t think he’s happy with me anymore.” Harry replied as he pocketed the bag of Galleons.

“What did you say?” Draco asked as he ignored the shocked looks on his three friend’s faces.

“I told him that apart from what goes on at this school he has no say in what I do outside of it. He tried the whole worried relatives bullshit and when that didn’t work he tried using Voldemort.” Harry replied.

“He really doesn’t learn.”

“Draco, what’s going on?” Theodore asked as he interrupted the conversation.

“Ah … right, come with us so we can talk more privately. The walls have ears.” Draco told his friends as he and Harry rose from the couch.

 

The three Slytherin’s followed Harry and Draco down the hallway that led to the seventh year boy’s dorms, when they came to Draco’s room, Harry realised that he would be sharing the room with the three other boy’s after he saw his trunk at the end of one of the beds. 

The room was larger than the boy’s dorm in the Gryffindor tower, it only had four beds and there was enough room in the back corner of the room for a private study that consisted of four desks and two sofas. A small fire was burning in the fireplace that was in front of one of the couches, a plush green rug was laid in front of the fire and a small coffee table, that looked like it was made from polished oak, was in front of the centre couch.

 

All five moved over to the couches and sat down in front of the warm fire, Harry had placed himself next to Draco again and he noticed for a small second that Blaise had given him a jealous look before it disappeared from his face. 

 

“Over the summer I ran away from home so that my mother couldn’t force me to become a Death Eater. My father has been covering for me so far but it’s only a matter of time before Voldemort discovers that my father is the one who helped me to escape from the wonderful privilege of having to bow and scrape at his feet.” Draco started.

“Then how did you become friends with Potter? Last we heard he was Dumbledore’s obedient pet.” Pansy asked as she settled down into her seat more comfortably.

“My father and I ran into him in the Apothecary in Diagon Alley back in August. He informed us that he knew my father was a spy for the Order and that he needed to be careful. When he found out that I needed somewhere safe to stay for the rest of the summer he offered his family manor as a safe haven.” Draco told them.

“So, why the sudden change of house, Potter?” Theodore asked.

“I was originally meant to go into Slytherin in my first year but I talked the hat out of it, over the last two years I have been slowly breaking away from the image everyone has heaped upon me. I decided that a change was in order and I called in a favour at the Ministry and they granted my request to be re-sorted.” Harry told them.

“I found out last year, quite by accident, that Dumbledore has been paying the Weasley’s to spy on me since the day we met. Dumbledore was going off at Ronald for not doing as he was paid to do. Naturally I saw red and my plan to break away from Dumbledore went into effect sooner than planned.”

 

Draco’s three friends sat and listened as Harry and Draco filled them in on the plans for the school year. They needed to determine which Slytherin’s wanted out of the war and who support Voldemort. They sat there in front of the fire talking until one o’clock the next morning before they all went their separate ways to get some sleep before their early rise the next day.


	8. The Chamber of Secrets

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
 **Warnings:** Slash, violence, mentions of child abuse and language. Alcohol consumption.  
 **Pairings:** HP/SS, DM/BZ, LM/RL, FW/AJ, GW/OW, HG/CW

I’ve always wanted to drown my troubles, but I can’t get my enemy to go swimming.

**Chapter Eight:** The Chamber of Secrets.

 

When Harry woke up on the morning of the first day of school, the sun hadn’t even risen yet. He got out of bed and quietly changed into a pair of track pants and a sleeve less shirt. After he tied up his new sneakers he grabbed his invisibility cloak and silently crept out of the room so as to not wake the other three occupants. After donning his cloak, Harry walked out of the Slytherin common room and headed through the Dungeon corridors.

By the time Harry reached the shore of the Black Lake the sun had already started its slow ascent into the sky. After hiding his cloak under a tree near-by, he stretched a little before starting off at a jog around the lake. Every morning that he had spent at the Dursley’s Harry would sneak out of the house and jog around the streets of Little Whinging. He had kept up the habit whilst at his new home and didn’t see why he shouldn’t keep it up while at school.

Running helped him to think, and right now he needed to think of a way to get everyone into the Chamber of Secrets. He knew that the tunnel was the way in and out for the Basilisk but he highly doubted that Salazar Slytherin himself would stoop to using it as his own entrance. He had to find a way, he needed the Chamber for the DA and there was no way they were all going to go town the pipe. Harry planned on going into the Chamber that night to have a look around. He was going to take Draco and Severus down there; they would both enjoy the plethora of ingredients that they would be able to gather from the body of the Basilisk.

He needed to have a look at the school records which are in the Restricted Section, hopefully Severus would agree to write him a permission slip to enable him access to the books he would need, though it wouldn’t be possible till his first potion lesson which wasn’t till Wednesday. He planned on trying to find where Slytherin’s office is, his portrait should be in there and hopefully he would be in a talking mood.

Once Harry had finished his run around the lake, he sat down behind the tree he hid his cloak in so he wouldn’t be seen and pulled out his pack of smokes and lit one. Drawing in a deep breath, he savoured the flavour of the first cigarette he had managed to have since he was on the train. There was only so many times you could fake needing to use the toilet before people became suspicious, or thought you had bladder issues. That was the last thing he needed, another rumour.

Harry’s first class of the day was charms with the Ravenclaw’s, unfortunately followed by double transfiguration with the Gryffindor’s. He would need to talk to Hermione about what went on in the Gryffindor common room the night before, so glad he had an insider in his former house. 

After the odd turn of events at the sorting the previous night, Harry had noticed the reactions of the other houses. The Gryffindor’s, naturally, looked betrayed. The Hufflepuff’s seemed to have mixed reactions to the re-sorting. The Ravenclaw’s, mostly the older years, seemed to have contemplative looks on their faces. They would be the most accepting house, if they didn’t favour knowledge so much they would make excellent Slytherin’s. The Slytherin’s, on the other hand, had the least likely reaction he thought possible, they mostly welcomed him into the house. There would of course be those that would have sent letters straight to their Death Eater parents to inform them that the Gryffindor Golden Boy was now in their house, it was only a matter of time before Voldemort called a meeting to discuss the development.

By the time the sun had fully risen into the sky, Harry had made his way through half his packet of smokes. He had managed to organise his thoughts and create a mental plan for what he was wanting to do that night. He knew that Dumbledore could see through his invisibility cloak, so he would have to pay extra attention to his map as well as his surroundings whilst heading for the Chamber. For now, he had breakfast to attend.

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

“Where were you this morning?” Draco asked Harry as the black haired wizard took a seat next to him at the Slytherin table.

“Jogging around the Black Lake.” Harry replied as he started to put food onto his plate.

“Since when do you jog?”

“Since it was the only way to get away from the Dursley’s for an hour a day. I took to it during the last two summers and I still try to do it here. Helps me to think.” Harry explained to the young blonde.

 

The pair grew silent as they tucked into their breakfast, with it being only seven thirty in the morning the hall was mostly filled with Ravenclaw’s pawing over whatever book was needed for their first lesson and the odd smattering of students at the other tables who were early risers. Not all of the teachers were in attendance yet either, Dumbledore was there of course, keeping an eye on Harry.

Dumbledore had been hoping that the boy wouldn’t be at breakfast so early, the task he had given to the youngest Weasley would not go into effect for another hour, well after Harry would have left the hall. If he himself couldn’t control the boy, then he would control him through another. Ginny Weasley had been given a month’s supply of a love potion, odourless and tasteless. It was a potion that created false infatuation and feelings of submission, if Ginny was able to get Harry to ingest the potion then she would have complete control over him and in turn, Dumbledore would have him back under his control.

If things went as planned, then the boy would be back in his control by the end of the week. But as usual, the Little Boy Wonder was throwing a wrench into his carefully thought out plans.

 

“Wonder what the old man is thinking, he looks rather constipated.” Harry remarked after he took a big gulp of his orange juice.

“I don’t know but it probably has something to do with you, it’s always to do with you.”

“He needs to get a life, of course it’s not going to happen anytime soon.”

“Anyway, after breakfast I want to meet up with Hermione to find out if anything interesting happened in the Gryffindor common room last night. I’ve also decided that we need to go into the Chamber tonight, we’ll need to bring Professor Snape with us.”

“Chamber? What Chamber?” Draco asked.

“The Chamber of Secrets. It’s the perfect spot to hold the DA meetings, Dumbledore can’t get into it. The only entrance I know of is the one in the girl’s unused bathroom on the second floor. That’s how I got down into the Chamber in our second year, I’ll need the help of both you and Severus to search for another entrance.” Harry Explained.

“If we’re unable to find the other entrance whilst down there then I plan on asking Severus for a pass to the restricted section to try and find a book referencing the whereabouts of Slytherin’s office.” Harry continued as he poured himself another goblet of juice.

“Okay, just let me know what time you want to head out tonight. For now, I believe it is time to meet up with Hermione, she’s just finished her meal.” Draco pointed out as he put away his charms book and stood from the table.

 

Harry quickly gulped down the remainder of his juice and grabbed the last three pieces of bacon off of his plate before standing up and following the blonde to the doors leading out of the hall. 

They caught up with Hermione who was standing at the base of the Grand Staircase, she had one of her text books out and was skimming through it whilst she waited for the two boy’s to turn up. Upon their arrival she closed the book and placed it into her school satchel before turning to face her two friends.

 

“Took you two long enough to catch up.” Hermione said with a fond look on her face as she watched Harry shove the last of his bacon into his mouth.

“Hey, ever since I came into my magical inheritance and more of my magic opened up, my appetite has tripled. I guess it’s a good thing because since my birthday I’ve grown five inches and actually gained weight.” Harry explained in indignation as the three teens walked up the stairs.

“At least you don’t eat like Ronald. I swear he eats like a starving beggar eating their first meal in weeks. That’s at every meal too.” Hermione said as they reached the third floor corridor where their Charms class was.

“Did you have a run in with him last night?” Harry asked as they stopped outside an empty room a few doors down from the charms classroom, they still had just under an hour till their class started.

“He and his sister ambushed me as soon as they found me in the common room, I ignored them the best I could but eventually I had to head up to my dorm room. Thankfully, with me being the Head Girl this year, I have my own room so I was able to escape from them completely.” Hermione informed them as they entered the unused room to continue their conversation in private.

“Things will start to get heated once everyone has settled in. I’m still waiting for the fallout from last nights’ sorting, it’s guaranteed that the students with Death Eater parents will have sent their little letters off telling about how I’m now in Slytherin.” Harry said to his two companions.

“Pansy told me this morning that she saw Millicent Bulstrode sending off a letter.” Draco informed them as he took a seat.

“Hmm, It’s alright. I knew it was going to happen, we’ll just have to see how it plays out.”

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

The rest of the day went by fairly quickly; the two hours Harry was stuck in Transfiguration with Ronald was both tedious and funny. The volatile Weasley spent the majority of the lesson trying to provoke a reaction out of Harry, however he ended up getting the Gryffindor’s close to being in the negative when it came to house points.

Seems McGonagall no longer favoured that particular Gryffindor, she was less than impressed when she found out that most of the Weasley family were being paid by Dumbledore.

Arithmancy turned out to be a rather interesting class, he was thankful he had decided to take it. It didn’t hurt that it was one of only two of his classes that didn’t have the Weasley in it. 

Dumbledore must have done something to prevent the news of Harry’s resorting from getting to the papers, he was expecting for it to be in The Daily Prophet but there was not a single thing mentioned.

Harry planned on going to Severus’ office after dinner to talk to him about going down into the Chamber with he and Draco. He was hoping that the man wasn’t on rounds that night and that he’d be able to help them sneak up to the second floor bathroom so they could access the tunnel. Harry was really hoping that Myrtle would be off in one of the u-bends so that he didn’t have to put up with her talking about him dying and haunting the bathroom with her.

Like at breakfast, Dumbledore was concentrating his attention on the Slytherin table. The boy had somehow managed to not be effected by the potion that he knew was in the goblet of pumpkin juice the boy was drinking. The effects should have been instant but the boy went on as though nothing was in the goblet other than what was supposed to be.

Little did Dumbledore know, Dobby had taken it upon himself to check all of Harry’s food before it went up to his place at the table. It was harder with the juice because it was served in jugs but he had managed it. With the wizarding world on the brink of war with Voldemort, Dobby didn’t want to chance his unofficial master being hurt. He wasn’t happy when he saw the sister of Harry’s red headed friend passing a vial to another house elf at breakfast and then again at lunch, unlike the other elves Dobby wasn’t subjected to the same orders. He would need to inform Harry of what he had discovered, maybe the wizard could find out what the potions were.

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

“Is there a reason why you are at my office and not in the common room, Mr Potter?”

“I need to talk to you, sir. It’s about what we discussed earlier.” Harry informed the potions professor.

“Very well, come inside.” Severus stepped aside and allowed the boy to enter into his office.

 

The pair of wizards walked over to the desk at the far wall and sat down, Severus pulled a bit of parchment towards him and started to mark it with a red quill. Harry guessed it must be someone’s summer homework, from the look of the rapid progress of red ink going along the parchment, he figured it wasn’t a good one.

 

“What is it you wanted to discuss?” the potions professor asked as he dipped his quill into the ink pot again.

“I’ve found somewhere to hold the new DA meetings, problem is that I need to find an alternate entrance and I was hoping that you would come with me and Draco to go and look around.”

“And where is this location you have decided on?”

“The Chamber of Secrets.”

“You’ve decided to have the meetings in a chamber that houses an unknown creature?” Severus asked as he put his quill down and pushed the parchment away from him.

“The Basilisk isn’t alive anymore, it’s only useful for potions ingredients now.” Harry told him off handily.

“The Chamber creature was a Basilisk?” 

“How can you not know that? I thought that Dumbledore had told all the teachers about what went on down in the Chamber.” Harry asked shocked.

“All we were told was that he had found out what was behind the petrification of the students and that it had been dealt with. He didn’t even tell us where the entrance to the Chamber was.” Severus explained.

“The Basilisk was using a tunnel that exited into the unused second floor girl’s bathroom. I need to go in there tonight to see if there is another entrance because I highly doubt that Salazar Slytherin would have used a slimy tunnel to enter into his chamber.” Harry explained.

“If I came with you would I be able to harvest the Basilisk for ingredients?” Severus asked, barely containing the glint of glee in his eyes.

“Sure, it’s only going to go to waste otherwise.” Harry told him with a hint of laughter in his voice.

“What time are you wanting to go down there?”

“After curfew, less likely to run into anyone. Draco and I will sneak up there under my cloak and we’ll meet you there at about twelve.” Harry told him.

“Alright, I will see you at twelve.” Severus told him as they both stood from their seats and headed towards the door.

 

Harry left the office and headed further into the dungeons towards the Slytherin dorms. When he entered the common room he saw Draco, Pansy, Theo and Blaise sitting on the leather lounges in front of the fireplace. It looked like Draco had once again scared off any younger year from sitting on those particular lounges, he was really having fun scaring the little first years.

 

“Harry, over here.” The blonde called as he spotted the younger wizard enter.

“I just spoke with Professor Snape, he agreed for twelve.” Harry told the group as he sat down next to Pansy.

“Was he all excited about the Basilisk?” Draco asked.

“He didn’t even know about it, apparently Dumbledore only told the teachers what he wanted them to know. Nothing about how I got into the chamber, nor about what was actually doing the petrification’s.” Harry explained.

“How far do his manipulations go?” Pansy asked incredulously.

“There will be more that are going to be revealed before the year is even out.” Theo added into the conversation.

 

The five teens continued to talk about the headmaster and his manipulations as the night slowly passed, all the younger years had eventually gone to their dorms and left the five older students the only ones in the common room.

Eventually even Pansy, Theo and Blaise left to go to bed and as they all walked out of the room, Harry noticed Draco’s eyes eagerly following Blaise’s ass as the boy walked from the room.

 

“When are you going to tell him already?” Harry asked the blonde once the Italian wizard was no longer in sight.

“Tell who what?” 

“Oh please, don’t insult my intelligence. I know you have the hots for Blaise.” Harry replied incredulously.

“I do not.”

“Ah, yes you do. Every time you see him you stare at him like a starving man looking at his next meal.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” Draco said as he stood from his seat and walked over to the table in the corner that had jugs of juice and water on it.

“You can keep denying it all you want but your feelings for him are obvious to everyone but he and you.” 

“Just drop it, okay Harry. If we’re talking about feelings, then are you going to admit to yours about Severus?” Draco changed the subject onto his friend.

“Oh I already know how I feel about him; I also know that nothing will ever happen. Whereas the feelings you have for Blaise are returned.” Harry told him, he had no qualms about admitting to his attraction to the potions master, he also knew without a doubt that the man only tolerated him because he was the only way the man would be free of both his masters.

“Can we just change topics completely, please? What time is it?” Draco asked once he drained his goblet.

“It’s eleven thirty, if we leave now then we should get to the second floor by twelve. Just let me go and get my cloak and map.” Harry conceded to Draco’s request for a topic change. He headed towards the dorm he shared with the other seventh year boy and retrieved his cloak and map from their hiding place within his trunk.

“Alright, let me check the map to make sure no one is outside the entrance.” Harry said to the blonde as he returned to the common room.

 

Harry said the password to reveal the maps contents and then promptly had his vision obstructed by a blonde head. Draco had pushed his way in front of Harry to get a look at the unfolded map as it started to reveal itself.

 

“What the hell is this?” 

“It’s a map that my father and his friends made while they were at Hogwarts. It shows everyone in the castle, no matter where they are. There are only two places that it doesn’t show and that’s the Chamber and the room of requirement.” Harry informed his as he looked at the map to see outside the Slytherin dorms.

“This thing is awesome, look there is the Weasel. Looks like Dumbledore has called upon his two little pets, they’re both in his office.” Draco pointed out when he spotted the names in the headmaster’s office.

“Probably discussing whatever it is that had the old coot pissed at every meal today.” Harry said as he looked at that location on the map.

“Looks like Hermione is doing her rounds.” Harry pointed out as he found her name on the map.

“She’s on the second floor, isn’t that near where you said the unused bathroom is?” 

“Yeah, she must be doing her Head Girl duties tonight. She said something about keeping an eye out tonight if she was able, she must have talked the Head Boy into swapping nights with her.” Harry added as he looked at her name on the map.

“Well that will make it easier to sneak into the bathroom. There is no one on patrol in the Dungeons so we should be fine, at least until we get to the second floor corridor where it looks like the sixth year Ravenclaw prefect is patrolling. We need to go down that corridor to get to the bathroom.” Harry said once he had studied the map.

“We’ll worry about that when we get there, let’s head out now so we don’t leave the professor waiting for us. That won’t go over too well.” Draco told Harry as they headed to the passage leading to the stone wall that hid their common room.

 

Hidden under the cloak and with a silencing charm placed on their shoes, the two young wizards made their way up to the second floor. They almost ran into Peeves on the Grand Staircase but a noise seemed to distract him before he could reveal their position and he floated off in the direction the sound came from. Other than their almost run in with Peeves, they met no one else until they came to the second floor corridor and saw the Ravenclaw prefect. Getting passed him was rather easy considering it seems as though his girlfriend had joined him and they were currently leaning against the wall snogging each other and not paying attention to their surroundings.

They didn’t run into Hermione but the corridor outside the bathroom was completely empty so they entered the room to find the potions professor standing by the sinks waiting impatiently. Not a good idea to make the stoic man wait for anything. They quickly pulled the cloak off and walked further into the room.

 

“Took the two of you long enough.”

“Sorry, we almost had a run in with Peeves.” Harry explained as he folded his cloak and placed it into the bag he had bought with him.

“Well, now that you are here, let’s get on with this.” Severus told him.

 

Harry pulled his wand out of his holster and walked over to the sinks, he spoke the password and stepped back to watch as both Draco and Severus looked at the moving sinks with awe. Once the entrance had opened, Harry cast a Lumos charm and aimed the light down the tunnel, it looked just as slimy and dismal as it did in his second year.

 

“It’s a really gross tunnel to go down but seeing as we are going down to try and find an alternate entrance then it should be fine for the first few times.” Harry told them as he prepared to jump down the tunnel.

“You mean we actually have to go down there?” Draco asked as he looked into the tunnel with disgust.

“Yes Draco, we have to go into the dark slimy tunnel. The world isn’t going to end if you get a bit of dirt on you.” Harry told him before promptly jumping down the pipe.

 

When he got to the end of the tunnel he cast a banishing charm to get rid of all the rooster carcases, he was just in the process of casting a cleaning charm when Draco reached the bottom. The look on his face made Harry laugh, he had only ever seen that look on the blonde that morning when he had made the mistake of looking over at the Gryffindor table and saw Weasley eating his breakfast.

 

“Well that was disgusting.”

“You’d better move, I can hear Severus coming down.” Harry told him. The blonde had just barely moved when the potions master gracefully exited the tunnel.

“Do you ever do anything without grace?” Harry asked him.

“Let’s just get going.” 

 

The three wizards continued into the tunnel that lead to the circular door leading into the actual chamber itself, once they reached the area where the cave in occurred, when Lockhart tried to Obliviate him, Harry and Draco cast a banishment charm on the fallen rocks whilst Severus cast a spell to reinforce the roof. Once the way was clear, Severus pulled out a few jars from his satchel and started to collect some of the Basilisk skin.

Once he had collected enough to fill three small jars, the three of them headed further down the tunnel. Once Harry had spoken the password and the actual entrance door had open, Harry led the two others down the ladder and then towards where the Basilisk was.

 

“You actually fought that thing?” Draco asked him.

“It seemed bigger. Probably because I was twelve and like five foot tall. There must be some kind of preservation charm on the chamber, that Basilisk has been lying dead there for five years and it should be bones by now.” Harry said as he moved closer to examine the mouth.

“Why is it missing a fang?” Severus asked as he started to extract the venom from the one fang that was left.

“It ended up in my arm.” Harry replied off handily as he walked over to the giant head of Slytherin. He ended up turning around to look at them when his answer was met with silence.

“What?”

“You should be dead, Basilisk venom kills within minutes.” Said Severus, incredulously.

“I would be dead, if Fawkes hadn’t come along and cried on the wound.” Harry explained to them.

“Did it hurt?” Draco asked.

“Are you serious? Can you see the size of the other fang? Of course it hurt, I stabbed the damn thing through the mouth and, as I pulled my arm back, the Basilisk was thrashing around and the fang pierced my arm and broke off.” Harry explained further.

“What happened to the fang?” Severus asked him.

“Dumbledore has it, along with Tom Riddle’s diary.” Harry told him.

“Who is Tom Riddle?” Draco asked as he helped Severus to peel off some of the scales.

“Tom Marvolo Riddle is Voldemort’s birth name. His name is an anagram; it changes from Tom Marvolo Riddle to I Am Lord Voldemort. Pretty sure he’s in love with himself.” Harry told him.

“Anyway, I’m going to head off and look for any other rooms.” Harry told the other two wizards before walking further into the chamber.

 

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

 

For the next three hours all three wizards went about their tasks, Harry walked along all the walls looking for a door while Severus and Draco continued to harvest the Basilisk. Severus would be able to make quite a bit of money from selling the ingredients. Draco had helped with collecting the ingredients but had stopped about an hour in to help Harry with his search.

Just when Harry was about to give up, he noticed a motif of a snake that was barely visible in the dull lighting of the chamber. It looked like the snake on the sinks up in the bathroom and Harry wondered if it required the same password.

 

“Hey guys, come over here. I think I found something.” Harry called out.

“What is it?” Draco asked.

“I found a snake motif that matches the one up in the bathroom, I would have missed it if the light wasn’t shining on it the way it is.” Harry pointed out to them.

“Well, open it then.” Draco told him.

 

Harry gave him an incredulous look before turning to the wall and speaking in parseltongue to open the hidden door. The wall rumbled and a panel the size of a door pushed inwards a bit before sliding to the right. Once the door stopped moving, it was like a spell had been activated, there was a cascade effect as lanterns along the left side of the wall lit up showing a hall leading to another door. 

Harry entered the hallway first and made his way towards the door. Thankfully this door had a handle and with a quick turn it opened easily. Behind the door was a spiral staircase leading back up into the school, as they walked up the stairs lanterns along the wall lit their way. At the top of the stairs was a door that automatically opened as Harry approached it, like out in the hall, the lanterns inside the room lit up upon the door opening giving the three wizards the needed light to see where they were. They walked further into the room and noticed it was a sitting room, there were chairs over in front of a rather ornate fireplace, above it was a picture of Hogwarts during winter. The fireplace lit up with the presence of the wizards and more of the room came into light. Along the right wall were several doors leading off to who knows where, another door was on the far wall which Harry assumed must be the door to lead out of the quarters. He had a sneaking suspicion as to where they were but he wanted to make sure before voicing his thoughts.

 

“Where are we?” Draco asked as he walked further into the room.

“I have no idea, well at least not much of one yet. Pick a door and explore.” Harry said as he picked the door closest to the staircase entrance.

 

It was a lucky pick, the room turned out to be an office. He headed towards the desk to see if he could determine whose office it was when he heard a voice from behind him, spinning around he was a portrait on the wall beside the door. The occupant was even more shocking than the sudden voice.

 

“Who are you and why are you in my quarters?”


	9. Salazar Slytherin

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
 **Warnings:** Slash, violence, mentions of child abuse and language. Alcohol consumption.  
 **Pairings:** HP/SS, DM/BZ, LM/RL, FW/AJ, GW/OW, HG/CW

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't.

**Chapter Nine:** Salazar Slytherin

 

Harry would later deny it but he jumped when he noted that the occupant of the portrait was none other than Salazar Slytherin himself. The Hogwarts founder had a stern look in his eye as he stared at Harry who was still standing in the middle of the room staring at the portrait.

 

“Well, are you going to answer my question?”

“Sorry, I was just a bit shocked that you’re here. Guess I don’t need to search for your office anymore.” Harry added as an afterthought as he moved closer to the portrait.

“That still doesn’t answer my question.” 

“I’m Harry Potter and I’ve been trying to find your office with the hope it contained your portrait.” Harry explained.

How did you gain access? Only a parseltongue can get into my quarters.” Salazar asked the young wizard.

“I am a parseltongue, I accessed your office from the Chamber of Secrets.” Harry explained.

“So, you’re my heir then?”

“Not that I know, I’m pretty sure I got my parseltongue abilities when Voldemort tried to kill me.” Harry said as he sat down in a chair.

“Who is Voldemort?”

“Only the most psychotic megalomaniac Dark Lord to haunt the wizarding world since Gellert Grindelwald.” Harry told him.

“I’ve never heard of Gellert Grindelwald.” Salazar informed the boy.

“Right, okay. Think of Morgan le Fay but much worse. Voldemort is following through on your last wishes and wants to eradicate the world of all muggles and Muggleborns.” Harry explained further.

“I never wanted to eradicate the Muggles or Muggleborns. Where did you get that from?” Salazar asked, he looked genuinely shocked at the words coming from the younger wizard.

 

Before Harry could respond, Draco and Severus entered the room.

 

“What’s taking you so long?” Draco asked his friend.

“I found out whose quarters these are.” Harry told them as he pointed to the portrait behind his two fellow Slytherin’s.

“Whoa, didn’t expect that.” Draco said as he tried not to gawp at the portrait of his houses founder.

“Who said that I wanted to eradicate the Muggles?” Salazar asked Harry again.

“Almost everyone, Slytherin house is now associated with hatred towards Muggles because of the stories told about you. History states that you got into a huge argument with the other founders of Hogwarts because you wanted to prevent Muggleborns from entering the school and that you created the Chamber of Secrets to house a monster to kill all Muggleborn students.” Harry explained as Draco and Severus sat down as well.

“It was said that before you could release the beast on the school you had disappeared, the house of Slytherin has been treated with fear and hate ever since.” Harry finished.

“That’s all lies, I never wanted to eradicate Muggles or Muggleborns. Without Muggleborns the Pureblood lines would be diluted due to inbreeding to keep the lines pure. I had plans to find and then early educate Muggleborns so they wouldn’t be coming into our world unknowing of our ways. Purebloods and Half Bloods were educated from a young age and spent their whole lives around magic, Muggleborns were thrust into our world and didn’t know how to act which resulted in the witch hunts.” Salazar explained to them.

“Godric, Rowena, Helga and I came up with the Muggleborn integration act but it never went through. I was driven out of Hogwarts by several of the Pureblood families that didn’t agree with the act, Godric was the only one who knew where I went. The witch hunts got worse and the wizarding world ended up segregating itself from the rest of the world and then the ministry was formed. I didn’t believe that my plans for the Muggleborns would ever be received considering that most of the ministry officials were part of the Pureblood families that threw me out of Hogwarts. I stayed in hiding and spent the rest of my days with my lover before dying and ending up back here in my office as a portrait”

“How come no one has ever seen you in any of the other portraits?” Draco asked.

“I don’t know, ever since my portrait was activated I have been unable to move out of it. I don’t even know what year it is.” He told them.

“It’s nineteen ninety-seven, school has not long started for the year.” Harry informed him.

“None of the other founder’s portraits have ever said anything about the Muggleborns act, in fact, they haven’t really said anything about you that didn’t prove the stories about why you left the school.” Severus added.

“I don’t know what is going on with the founding portraits but the fact that Salazar isn’t able to even leave his is a bit of a red flag. It’s definitely something that needs to be looked into.” Harry said to the others.

“For now we need to discuss what we originally needed to find out.” Severus told the ex-Gryffindor.

 

The three wizards then proceeded to spend the next hour discussing the plans Harry had for the DA and what the best way to enter the Chamber would be. Salazar answered what questions were asked concerning the Chamber and revealed another room in the Chamber that held a rather vast library that held more obscure books than even the Black family vault contained. 

During the conversation, Salazar let slip that the lover he lived with in the years after he left Hogwarts was Godric Gryffindor. The new piece of information made Harry even more curious about why the portrait of Godric Gryffindor had never voiced any of the information they were receiving. It did sort of explain part of the reason behind Salazar not being able to leave his portrait.

Harry would have to find a way to talk to Godric’s portrait considering he was positioned in the Grand Staircase as a shortcut to the side room in the Great Hall. Finding a way to talk to the portrait without the other ones listening in would be the hard part, maybe he would be able to determine why the other founding portraits have no recollection of what went on in the past.

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

“Uncle Sev is really happy with his collection of Basilisk ingredients. He’s already started planning what potions he’s going to experiment on with them.” Draco informed Harry the next day at breakfast.

“Did he banish the rest of the carcass once he finished stripping it?” Harry asked him.

“Yeah, once he had stripped it of every usable piece he banished it and cleaned the mess that was left behind. Before we start the lessons in the Chamber we’ll need to go back down there and clean up all the moss and slime that has congealed on the surfaces in there.” Draco replied.

“Hmm, a thousand years of dirt and grime is going to need a pretty strong cleaning charm. Maybe a trip to the library is in order after all.” Harry said as he poured himself another goblet of orange juice.

“I need to find a way to talk to the portrait of Godric Gryffindor, his portrait just had to be put on the Grand Staircase. It’s going to make talking to him more difficult, unless we can get him to move to another portrait for some privacy.” Harry mused.

“Maybe if we can break the spell on Salazar’s portrait then maybe we can lure Gryffindor into it and talk to him there. Salazar may be able to help us figure out why the other founder never mentioned anything about what we learned last night.” Draco replied.

 

Before the conversation could go any further, the first bell for the first lesson of the day. As Harry stood from his seat he bent down to pick up his bag he ended up looking over at the Gryffindor table. Ginny Weasley was throwing him a hopeful look as his eyes met hers, unsure why she was giving him such a bizarre look he shook his head and then proceeded to follow Draco out of the hall. He was so caught up in the continuing conversation between he and Draco that he completely missed the furious look aimed at him by the youngest Weasley.

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

Dumbledore sat in his office contemplating the series of events that had played out since Harry Potter turned seventeen that summer. His control over the boy was broken, he no longer knew what he was up to because the young wizard had cut all ties with his old friend.

He’d had plans for the boy this school year but they were now all out the window with the rest of his plans. He was still unsure how the boy had yet to be affected by the potion he had given to Ginny Weasley, the girl had assured him that she had given the potion to a house elf and that she had watched as the potion was put into Harry’s food and drink but for some reason the boy was not getting it. Dumbledore never once thought of Dobby being employed at the school.

He would need to call another meeting, more drastic measures towards the Potter boy were now needed if he expected his plans to go back on track.

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

That night found Harry hiding in the shadows, under his cloak, on the Grand Staircase waiting for the Ravenclaw prefect to head back down the stairs. He had been making his way up to the seventh floor landing where Godric Gryffindor’s portrait was displayed when he had almost run into the fifth year prefect. Years of sneaking around under the cloak helped Harry to avoid the other boy without even making a sound.

Draco and Severus were currently in Salazar’s office waiting for Harry to get Godric to go into a blank frame they had set up so that they could talk with the founder about what Salazar had told them the previous night. Severus would be able to cast a diagnostic spell on the founder’s portrait to see if any spells had been cast upon it, it was a rather viable option considering someone had put a spell on Salazar’s portrait to prevent him from leaving it. Someone wanted to keep him quiet, even in death.

Another five minutes passed before Harry felt it was safe enough for him to move from his hiding place, he looked over the rail and saw the prefect was down on the second floor landing. With the cloak still wrapped tightly around him, Harry continued up the staircase towards his final destination. Thankfully the stairs were still linked to the path he needed after the prefect had used them, he wasn’t looking forward to being caught now if the stairs started to move to create his path.

Godric Gryffindor was asleep in his portrait when Harry reached the top, so were all the other portraits in the immediate vicinity. That would make things a little easier.

 

“Excuse me?” Harry called as he lightly tapped on the picture frame.

“Wh – what? Doesn’t anyone have any respect anymore?” The occupant of the portrait grumbled as he sat up straighter in his seat and squinted in the dim light to try and see Harry better.

“I’m sorry, sir but this was the only time that I have a chance to speak with you.” Harry apologised.

“What could possibly be so important that you had to wake me in the middle of the night?” Godric asked the young wizard.

“I need to speak with you about a rather important matter that cannot be over heard by any of the other portraits. It involves the future of this school and the wizarding world itself.” Harry informed the man.

“And where do you suggest we talk? There isn’t a portrait in this school secure enough that will enable a private conversation.”

“There is a blank portrait set up in the office of Salazar Slytherin, do you think you can get to it?” Harry explained

 

Even though he gave a dubious look in Harry’s direction, Godric Gryffindor agreed to meet the boy in his fellow founder’s old quarters. Once the man had left his portrait, Harry put his cloak back on and scanned the surrounding area looking for the prefect from before. Upon not seeing the fifth year boy, Harry pulled his map out of his jacket pocket and spoke the password to reveal the map, not seeing anyone within his immediate area he headed back down the stairs towards the dungeons.

With how long it had taken him to get to Godric’s portrait, Draco was most likely getting impatient. The young Malfoy heir wasn’t known for his patience, having proven said lack of personality trait many times over in the past. The potion professor, on the other hand, had more patience than Harry thought was possible considering the amount of inept students he dealt with on a daily basis.

Harry came out of his musings just in time to duck into a nearby alcove when he noticed the little icon on his map letting him know that the school’s caretaker was about to come around the next corner. Thankfully the man didn’t have his cat with him, that damn thing was able to sense him every time he was under his cloak. He could already picture the glee on the weasel of man’s face if he ever managed to catch him out of his common room after curfew.

HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS

“What is taking him so long?” An irritated Draco asked as he paced in the office of Salazar Slytherin.

“Have patience, Draco. He will be here soon.” Severus admonished his irate student.

“Gryffindor showed up half an hour ago, it doesn’t take that long to get down here from the Grand Staircase.” Draco added as he continued to pace.

“Yes but what you need to understand is that he can’t exactly come running down here. There are prefects to avoid as well as Filch, not to mention there is a possibility that Dumbledore is out and about.” Severus explained as he pulled the boy into a seat as he passed in front of him.

“No Dumbledore, just the fifth year Ravenclaw prefect and Filch.” Harry explained as he entered the room.

“Finally!” Draco exclaimed as he sat more comfortably in his seat.

“I managed to run a diagnostic spell on Godric, I had to silence him as well as lock him in that frame when he realised that Salazar was here. I’m quite certain that some of his colourful words were picked up from students over the years.” Severus informed the young man as he placed his cloak onto the desk.

“What was the result?” Harry asked.

“Someone put a memory charm on him, didn’t even know it was possible to put one on a portrait but apparently it is.” Draco explained.

“I wanted to wait till you returned before I removed it, thankfully whoever put it on him did so quite a while ago so the spell has weakened enough for me to break it.” Severus explained further as he stood from his seat and headed towards the frame that contained a rather irate looking founder.

 

Harry sat down in the seat that Severus had vacated and watched as the man moved his wand in an intricate pattern, muttering Latin under his breath. It seemed easier to break the memory charm whilst the portrait’s occupant was still silenced, Severus didn’t need to be distracted by the words coming from the man’s mouth.

Salazar watched on in silence, still shocked at the hateful words that had been slung at him by his lover. He had never been more thankful then he was when the head of his house had announced that a memory charm had been cast on the portrait of his old lover. Hopefully the man would be able to remember who it was that had cast the charm. If his lover could be returned to him then he would promise to help the three young wizards to complete their goals

When Severus had completed the incantation to remove the spell, a bright white light illuminated the portrait. The light only lasted for a few seconds and when it finally dissipated the occupant looked around him in confusion, his eyes lit up once they landed on the portrait of Salazar and a bright smile spread over his face making him look younger.

 

“Sal? Where have you been?”

“I’ve been right here, ever since I died. Someone had cast a spell on my portrait to prevent me from leaving it, I guess it worked both ways because I haven’t had a visitor since.” Salazar explained as his body visibly relaxed at the recognition in the other man’s eyes.

“I wondered where you had gotten too, when my portrait was activated after my death I went through all the portraits in the school searching for yours but I never found it. I did ask one of the professors, the potions master at the time, I think his name was Ailwin, Ailwin Southwark. I don’t remember much after that conversation.” Godric explained to the occupants of the room.

“Well, whatever he did, he was most likely the one to lock Salazar into his portrait. Nothing can be done about it now so we might as well move on to more pressing matters.” Harry said.

“We cannot stay out much longer; it is two in the morning already. Now that we have solved the mystery of why Godric had no recollection of Salazar we can advance onto the original reason for needing to find you in the first place.” Severus added as he looked at the portraits.

“Yes, the Chamber. These quarters are the only other way in or out, the entrance you have been using was created for my familiar so she could go out into the forest to feed without running across any of the students.” Salazar explained.

“But it opens up into the school.” Harry told him.

“That’s not right, I had it set specifically so that the tunnels within the walls led to the outside. It was never meant to lead into the school or it would have put the students at risk.” Salazar explained further.

“The school was altered to allow for modern plumbing during the eighteenth century, the original tunnels must have been connected to the bathroom on the second floor to allow access into the Chamber because no one knows where your office is. Any descendants of yours would know of the Chamber and, with the rumours of you creating it to destroy the Muggleborns, they would be able to access it.” Harry said as he tried to remember what he had learned about the Chamber when it was discovered in his second year.

“We’ll have to seal that entrance up.” Draco added to the conversation.

 

Salazar had already been told what had happened to his familiar, he was not happy that his descendent had used her to wreak havoc on the school. Nor was he happy to learn that said descendent had managed to control a first year long enough to petrify several students before being stopped. He was grateful that no student was killed, at least this time around.

 

“I’ll start handing out the parchments for the DA members during classes tomorrow, they’ll have the directions to here and the time to meet on Saturday. Once all the members are there we’ll be able to determine how many times a week we can meet, quidditch tryouts start soon so that will put a wrinkle in our plans until they are over.” Harry told them.

“Each house has a different night for their training and I know that at least two teams train over the weekend as well. Once we determine which members are in their house team, we’ll be able to work around them to organise the days for the DA.” Harry said as he pulled out a piece of parchment and his self-inking quill.

“Why don’t we just have the meetings at night time?” Draco asked.

“Because the house heads check the dorms at ten o’clock to make sure that all the students are in their dorms. It’s easier to do it in the afternoons after classes and after dinner. Depending on how many members are in the DA this year, we may need to split the group up so there will be less suspicion than there will be with a large group of students not being accounted for.” Harry told the blonde as he wrote down the possible times to meet.

“Well that makes sense.”

“Come on, we need to go and leave those two to get reacquainted with each other. Can portraits even do that?” Harry asked as he rushed to pack his things away in his bag once he noticed the two founders making out like teenagers.

“I don’t know and I don’t want to know. Guess they couldn’t wait for us to leave.” Draco replied with a look of disgust on his face as he quickly followed Harry out of the office.

 

Severus just casually strolled out the door with a smirk on his face, sometimes his godson could be rather juvenile. He followed the two young wizards out of Slytherin’s quarters and then proceeded to escort them to the entrance to their common room and watched as they entered before heading back down the hall towards his own rooms. This year was definitely going to be interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here are the first 9 chapters. There will be more to come soon.


	10. The DA

**Title:** Sudden Changes

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

**Warnings:** Slash, violence, mentions of child abuse and language. Alcohol consumption.

**Pairings:** HP/SS, DM/BZ, LM/RL, FW/AJ, GW/OW, HG/CW

 

 

_You are only what you are when no one is looking._

**Chapter Ten:** The DA

 

 

 “I’m going to kill Ginny Weasley.” Harry said as he walked into the Slytherin common room.

 

“What has she done?” Draco asked the irate teen.

 

“I just had an interesting conversation with Dobby, apparently the youngest Weasley decided that she was going to put a love potion into my juice at mealtimes. Dobby discovered what she was trying to do and made sure he supplied fresh juice to me.” Harry explained as he flopped ungracefully onto the lounge, ignoring the indignant look Draco threw at him for his lack of grace.

 

“That must be why Dumbledore has had that sour look on his face after every mealtime.” Draco said.

 

“She won’t stop until I do something about it. This is just another way to try and control me but what’s the bet that Dumbledore has offered her all my vaults and properties in the event of my sudden and unexpected demise?”

 

“What are you going to do about the little bint?” Blaise asked.

 

“I’m not sure yet, I may just leave it for a bit. Will be amusing to watch the frustrated looks on their faces at every meal when I don’t all of a sudden claim my un-dying love for her.” Harry said with a thoughtful look on his face.

 

“On a different note, have you handed out any of the parchments yet?” Draco asked his fellow Slytherin.

 

“I’ve handed out a lot to the fifth year Ravenclaw’s, if they truly intend to join the DA then the details and directions to Salazar’s quarters will appear on the parchment. I’m glad you found that charm to put on the parchments, it makes hiding what we are doing so much easier.” Harry replied.

 

“Salazar’s library has been really useful in finding what we need, there are quite a few books that can help us out with the DA meetings.” Draco told them.

 

“Well the first meeting is set for this Saturday night, once we have determined who are on their house teams we can go from there. Your father is coming here about an hour before the meeting, he’ll be arriving via the floo in Remus’ office.” Harry said as he rose from his seat to get a drink.

 

“Are those two still tiptoeing around each other?” Draco asked.

 

“Yep, I told Remus that the reason he was having such a reaction to your dad was that he was his mate but I don’t think he really believed me. Lucius is just as stubborn.” Harry replied with an exasperated smile on his face.

 

“Maybe if I talk to dad we may actually get somewhere. If I explain to him about the whole mate thing, maybe he’ll make the first move.” Draco told the other wizard.

 

“Speaking of making first moves.” Harry said as he looked over to where Blaise had moved after their conversation had moved towards Remus and Lucius.

 

“I don’t know, Harry. What if he doesn’t return my feelings?” Draco asked as he looked at Blaise as the other boy conversed with a second year.

 

“Trust me, he does. There is no point in denying the inevitable.” Harry told him.

 

“I guess there is no time like the present.” Draco said before he got up from his seat and walked over to the dark skinned boy.

 

Harry watched as his friend walked up to the boy he had been crushing on for months, Draco said something into the other boy’s ear and then pointed to their dorm room. Blaise gave Draco a quizzical look before nodding and following the blonde towards the seventh year boy’s dorm room.

 

Harry didn’t want to hang around in the common room waiting for the pair to finish doing what Harry knew was inevitable, with a smile on his face he got up from the lounge and headed towards the exit. He had some things to discuss with Severus and it would give him an excuse to see the man.

 

Harry had no qualms about admitting that he had feelings for the older wizard, he also knew that his feelings wouldn’t be returned. In the end he would rather have the man as a friend than not have him in his life at all. At least they were able to get rid of the animosity that was fuelled when Harry had looked into the man’s pensieve in his fifth year. After a lengthy and genuine apology from Harry about invading the older wizard’s memories, they had been able to move forward and form a bond that would help them to work better together.

 

Harry came out of his musings once he reached his head of houses office, he knocked on the door then started to fiddle with the strap of his school bag as he waited for the door to be answered. He was almost smacked in the face by the opening portrait because of his lack of concentration, jumping out of the way he missed the slight smirk that formed on Severus’ face before it vanished.

 

“Mr. Potter, to what do I owe this visit to?” The stoic man asked as he stood with his arms crossed over his chest.

 

“I wanted to speak with you about the potion we did in class today.” Harry replied, just in case there was anyone about.

 

“Follow me, Mr. Potter.” Severus said as he stood to the left to allow the younger wizard to enter his office.

 

Harry entered the office and followed the older man to his desk in the back of the room, Harry took his bag off of his shoulder and placed it on the floor beside his chair before taking a seat.

 

“What is it you wanted to discuss?” Severus asked as he pulled a parchment towards him.

 

“I was wondering if you had written up that list of potions I asked you for?” Harry asked as he watched the man mark what appeared to be a student’s homework and from the amount of red ink already plastered on it the student would not be happy with the return of it.

 

“I have the list written up, all you need to do is copy it for those who will be doing the brewing. I have also set aside six spare cauldrons that can be used, the ingredients are another thing all together. I have not had a chance to leave the school to buy the ones that are required for the potions needed.” Severus informed him as he grabbed another parchment from the pile in front of him.

 

“I’ll send a letter to Lucius along with the list of ingredients that we need, he’ll be able to do the shopping at Diagon and bring it all here on Saturday. I’m going to be going down to the chamber tonight to clean it up a bit.” Harry said.

 

“Is there anything else you wanted?” Severus asked as he looked up from the parchment he was marking.

 

“What, can’t I just come and say hi?” Harry asked with an innocent look on his face.

 

Severus gave him a knowing look; the older man knew that there was another reason the young wizard had come to his office.

 

“Okay, so maybe Draco has finally decided to make a move concerning Blaise and I really don’t want to walk into the dorm room while they are in the middle of their little get together.” Harry said.

 

“Ah, understandable. What convinced my godson to finally talk to the other boy?” Severus asked.

 

“Me, got sick of watching Draco stare at Blaise’s ass every time he walked passed us. Didn’t really help when Blaise would do the same thing to Draco, just got sick of the beating around the bush. May just have to do the same thing to Remus and Lucius on Saturday. Told Remus that Lucius was his mate but I don’t think he believed me.” Harry explained.

 

“It’s understandable where Lupin is concerned, Lucius was ahead of us at Hogwarts so he never interacted with the younger years. Because of that, Lupin hadn’t been around him for his werewolf part to recognise the bond. With them being in close proximity over the summer, his beast was overwhelmed with the scent of its mate. Your best bet is to talk with Lucius about the matter, otherwise he will not find out about the bond because Lupin will continue to deny it.” Severus explained as he got to work marking yet another parchment.

 

“That’s what I was thinking earlier, Remus deserves to be happy after all the crap he has to put up with since he was a child simply because he has an infliction that is not within his control.” Harry told the other man.

 

“I have been thinking of a way to strengthen the Wolfsbane potion, maybe stop the pain that the transformation creates.” Severus told the other wizard.

 

“That will be good, I’ve seen the potions he has to take after his transformation is over. He gets really grouchy.”

 

 

The conversation between the two wizards lasted for another hour, Harry sat talking with the older wizard as the potion master marked the stack of parchments in front of him. Harry noted the barely concealed look of glee on the older man’s face as he practically covered each parchment in red ink, there were very few that weren’t marred with the crimson ink.

 

Now that Harry knew more about potions and was better at the ‘ _Subtle’_ art that is potions making, he better understood the potion master’s reason for being so harsh in his classes. There was no room for error when it came to the more dangerous potions that were made in the higher years, already a potion had been made incorrectly by the Weasley brat and had almost sent several students to the hospital wing. If it hadn’t been for Hermione’s quick thinking the damage would have been disastrous. When Severus had tried to have the boy removed from his class, Dumbledore had stepped in and prevented it. Of course that didn’t stop the man from giving the boy a months’ worth of detentions, cleaning out the cauldrons from every class that had been kept dirty just for him.

 

Ronald had tried to complain to McGonagall about the unfairness of the detentions but upon hearing what damage would have happened if Hermione had not stepped in, the Gryffindor head of house had told the boy that he was to attend every detention without complaint. They hadn’t been at school long and the boy was already causing trouble. He had yet to confront Harry head on but it was only a matter of time before that happened.

 

“I’m going to head back to the common room now, hopefully they are done with whatever they were doing and I’ll be able to get the books I need to start on my transfiguration homework.” Harry said to the other wizard as he stood from his seat, bending over to retrieve his bag Harry didn’t see Severus look up from his work and stare at the younger wizard’s ass.

 

“I will see you later, I may come down to the chamber to help with the cleaning if I finish this marking.” Severus told Harry, quickly averting his eyes as the boy turned to face him.

 

“Okay, I’ll see you later.”

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHP**

 

 

Harry was currently in the room of requirement doing the cleaning he had told Severus he was going to do. Once he had returned to the Slytherin common room he had headed to his dorm room to retrieve his books that he needed for his homework. He had found both his friends snuggled up on Draco’s bed, fully clothed, looking fully snogged out. Other than a brief hello both boy’s remained in a world of their own. Harry had just smiled at them fondly before leaving the room, he had then spent the time remaining till curfew doing his homework assignments.

 

Once everyone had headed to their rooms for bed, Harry had packed away all his school work and taken it back upstairs to his trunk. Draco and Blaise had migrated to under the covers and were fast asleep, their lack of clothing and the smell of sex that permeated the room told him exactly what they had been doing. After wishing for some mental bleach to erase the image that popped into his head, he had pulled his cloak out of his trunk along with the map before promptly leaving the room.

 

He had made his way to Salazar’s rooms and had stopped into the office to say hello to the two founders. To avoid him being noticed as missing from his portrait, Godric would venture down to the one that had been set up for him once all the students had gone to their dorms. The two lovers spent every night catching up, considering how long they were apart for they had a lot to catch up.

 

Salazar had already informed Harry of all the spells that were on the Chamber and which ones would need to be re-strengthened. Harry figured that it would be better if he strengthened the wards first before cleaning any of the mess up, who knew what all that grime was holding up. He was currently wandering around the outer wall of the chamber looking for cracks in the wards, he had a smoke hanging out his mouth and was mumbling under his breath. Harry was concentrating on the task at hand that he didn’t even hear as Severus entered the chamber.

 

“Where did you pick that nasty muggle habit up from?”

 

Not expecting anyone else to be in the chamber with him, Harry jumped at the sudden question dropping his lit cigarette onto his shirt.

 

“Ah, fuck. What the hell? Don’t sneak up on me.” Harry said as he frantically patted at his shirt to put out the embers.

 

“I wasn’t sneaking up on you, I thought you had heard me coming in.” Severus said as he walked closer to Harry.

 

“I was concentrating on the wards, there are cracks in several places that need repairing before I clean in here.” Harry said as he pulled out his pack of smokes and lit another one.

 

“Must you do that?” Severus asked as he pointed at the cigarette in the boy’s hand.

 

“Yes, I must.” Harry said as he turned back to the crack he had been in the process of repairing.

 

“Would you like some help?” Severus asked.

 

“Yeah, sure. I’ll repair the wards over here if you can over to that wall and start there.” Harry told the older man as he turned to look at him.

 

“Did you get around to sending that letter off to Lucius?” Severus asked as he headed towards the opposite wall, having to raise his voice so Harry would hear.

 

“Yeah, got it sent off before I came down here, won’t get a reply till tomorrow.”

 

 

The two continued to work in silence, though Severus kept throwing disapproving looks at Harry every time the boy lit up a new cigarette. At least the boy wasn’t doing drugs, he’d had problems with a student ten years ago. A fifth year who was Muggleborn, almost unheard of in Slytherin house, not only did he cop flak from the other houses but he also got it from his own house. The boy had turned to muggle drugs to try and distance himself from the troubles of his everyday life, if Severus hadn’t have found him when he did then the boy would have died. As long as Harry stuck to just cigarettes then he wasn’t going to say anything more on the subject, even if he thought it was a rather nasty habit.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHP**

 

 

“Okay, all of you are here today for the purpose of learning. I’m not really great at giving speeches so I’ll just get to the root of the matter.”

 

The Chamber of Secrets was full of students from all four houses, the students from Gryffindor were the most surprising considering a lot of them weren’t all that friendly to Harry once he had been sorted into Slytherin.

 

“Voldemort is coming, whether we are ready or not. The fact that he has been quiet since the end of last year is very worrisome, we need to be prepared for whatever he is going to throw at us. We already know that he has all the Dementor’s from Azkaban already at his beck and call, it’s only a matter of time before he gets the werewolves and vampires on his side as well.” Harry started as he walked around the gathered students.

 

“The giants have yet to pick a side and the goblins will not involve themselves in our war. The ministry sure as hell isn’t doing anything to make a difference, they all expect me to do all the work while they sit back and wait to take all the credit. If the ministry won’t do anything and the rest of the wizarding world are too scared to even leave their homes let alone fight a war, then it is up to us to do something about it. We have the ability and the tactical advantage to do something before things spiral more out of control than they are now.”

 

“I’m seventeen year sold, the war has been going on since I was fourteen, that’s three years’ worth of training I could have been doing to prepare me to go up against Voldemort. Instead, I have to rely on myself and the few allies I have left to get me ready but I am one person, there is only so much I can do on my own. That is why I need your help, some of you were already in the DA back when the Umbitch was trying to take over this school the rest of you are those who have been chosen because of your views on the war.” Harry continued.

 

“The piece of parchment you all received had a special spell on it, it would only show its contents to those who are loyal to me and are willing to help. Dumbledore will not be happy at what we are trying to accomplish here, seeing as he wants me back under his control and has even bought the services of the two youngest Weasley’s to try and accomplish that task.”

 

Harry was about to continue with his explanations when Luna Lovegood raised her hand to get Harry’s attention.

 

“What are we going to be learning, Harry?” The blonde asked, it was rare that the girl spoke with such clarity.

 

“With Voldemort having control of the Dementor’s we need to focus on the Patronus charm as our first task. Those who were in the DA two years ago and managed to create a corporeal Patronus can help with teaching the other students. Tonight, however, we are just going to go over the list of spells we will be learning. I also need a list of who are going to be trying out for their houses Quidditch team, further meetings will be worked around the team practices. Because the teachers check the dorms every night at ten, lessons will be held in the evenings after dinner and before curfew.”

 

“Over in that corner is a table, there are cauldrons and ingredients for the potions lists that are there as well. We need those who are adept at potions to help with the creations of those potions, there is a list for you to put your names on and Professor Snape will be overseeing that station to keep an eye on the potions being made.” Draco added as he pointed to the far left corner of the Chamber.

 

“Professor Lupin will be helping the first group of students with their Patronus charms, he will need to volunteers from the previous DA to help him with the lessons. Anyone willing need only talk to him. Mr. Malfoy is our Death Eater expert, for those of you who don’t know, he has been a spy against Voldemort since the beginning of the first war. The Weasley twins will be at the next meeting, they are currently working on some rather interesting little items that will be a big help in the war. They will be bringing a few prototypes with them and will most likely ask for some volunteers to help them mass produce.”

 

“The parchments you originally received will automatically update with the meeting times and dates, anyone not in the know will not be able to read the parchment so you don’t need to worry about anyone else seeing it.” Draco added.

 

“Are there any questions?” Harry asked.

 

“What else will we be learning?” A fifth year Hufflepuff asked.

 

“The table next to the potions one has a stack of parchments with a rough schedule written out, each lesson will be different but those are what we have for now. The entrance that you came through tonight will be the entrance you all will use to get here. Other than the people in this room, no one knows the location to those quarters and that is the way it is going to stay.” Draco told them.

 

With the explanations over, the students interested in the potions went over to the table to sign up for the various potions while the rest of the students went and collected the list of spells they would be covering. Seeing Lucius standing over by the fireplace along the left hand wall, Harry went over to have a little chat with the man.

 

“Hi, there is something I need to discuss with you.” Harry told the older wizard once he reached him.

 

“What’s on your mind?”

 

“It’s about Remus, I know you have feelings for him. You’d have to be an idiot not to see it with the way you look at the man.” Harry started.

 

“What’s your point? The man obviously doesn’t want anything to do with me in that regard.” Lucius said as he looked over to the man in question with a look of longing on his face.

 

“That’s the thing, he does. I know he does, the only problem is that he is a very stubborn man who seems to think that because he is a werewolf he should be alone and miserable for the rest of his life, even if that means being without his mate.” Harry explained.

 

“Mate? What do you mean mate?” Lucius asked as his attention quickly snapped to the younger wizard.

 

“Remus came to me during the summer holidays and gave me a list of symptoms he was suffering from ever since he first came into proximity to you. Considering you were in your seventh year when he started at Hogwarts he never had a chance to interact with you back then. I looked up the cause of them and came to one conclusion that explained it all, including your sudden and rapid interest in him.” Harry explained to him.

 

“You mean I’m his mate and because this summer is the only time we have ever interacted with each other it’s only now come to light?” Lucius asked.

 

“Yes, the thing is that Remus has gone through so much in his life because of his lycanthropy that he believes he is unworthy of a mate. He believes you are better off without him but if there is even a slight chance of you returning those feelings and not rejecting him then I’ll do anything to get the two of you together. Even if that means going behind his back and telling you about the bond.”

 

“I didn’t know; I mean I felt something the second we met but I wasn’t paying much attention at the time. The more time we spent together over the holidays the more that feeling grew. There is nothing I want more than to be with him, his lycanthropy is not an issue for me.” Lucius told the boy.

 

“Then how about you do something about it.” Harry told him as he gave him a pat on the back and walked away with a satisfied look on his face. Looks like Remus would get his mate after all.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHP**

 

 

In Little Hangleton, at the Riddle manor, sat a man with the features of a deformed snake. At his feet was a snake curled up on the wood floor, before him was the snivelling form of Wormtail. The rat of a man had just informed his master about Lucius Malfoy’s true allegiance, to say the Dark Lord was furious would be a gross understatement.

 

“Call Bella for me Wormtail, seems we will need to teach Lucius a lesson.”

 

Wormtail bowed low to his enraged master before quickly scurrying out of the room to fetch the deranged witch. His master would teach that Malfoy scum a lesson for daring to betray him, with a look of glee on his face he continued through the manor in search of Bellatrix Lestrange.

 

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHP**

 

 

**A/N:** Chapter ten is done. Things are finally looking up for Remus and Lucius but old Voldy has just found out about the blonde’s true allegiance, the next chapter is going to be interesting. Not only will it feature Voldemort’s wrath at his former right hand man but it will also have the conversation between Lucius and Remus. The next chapter will be the last one before I do a time jump, it’s only the first month of school and I want the next lot of interaction to happen on Halloween. Hope you enjoy.


	11. Things Heat Up: Part One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, I'm so sorry it took so long to get this up but it turned out to be longer than expected so I split it into three chapters. I hate reading cliff hangers just as much as I hate posting them so I wanted all three chapters to be finished before I posted them. I hope you guys enjoy.

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
**Warnings:** AU after year five. This is slash. If you don’t like slash, then don’t read my story. No one is forcing you to.  
**Pairings:** Harry/Severus, Draco/Blaise, Remus/Lucius, Neville/Luna, Fred/Angelina Johnson, George/Oliver Wood and Hermione Granger/Charlie Weasley

 

 

_The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing – Edmund Burke_

**Chapter Eleven:** Things Heat Up: Part One

 

 

“I don’t care that you are a werewolf, I have had feelings for you since the summer and I knew exactly what you were then.” Lucius told Remus.

 

 

They were standing in the living room of Salazar’s quarters arguing over whether or not they should be together. Remus was still adamant that Lucius deserved someone who wasn’t cursed with Lycanthropy, whereas Lucius was trying to tell him that Remus’ monthly transformations didn’t stop him from having feelings for the younger wizard.

 

The meeting for the DA had been over for a good half hour and all but Harry and his friends had left the chamber to head back to their dorms for the night. Harry decided to leave the pair to their little chat and was keeping his friends busy in the chamber preparing things for the next meeting that would occur after the houses Quidditch teams had their tryouts.

 

“But I don’t- “

 

“Remus if you say ‘I don’t deserve a mate’ I will hex you three ways from Sunday.” Lucius interrupted.

 

“Well what do you expect me to say? The way I was treated growing up because of something that was out of my control proved just how much I was undeserving of things. I was bitten when I was four, that has led to thirty-three years of bigotry and hatred. What child deserves that?” Remus told the blonde as he started to pace up and down in front of the fireplace.

 

“I had no friends and no expectations of a magical education that didn’t involve me being taught at home. When my letter came from Hogwarts I thought things would finally be looking up for me, I’d make friends and no one would suspect that I was a werewolf. I did make friends and the other students didn’t find out about me being a werewolf but once school was over they all pretty much went their own ways and no one wanted to hire a werewolf as an employee. Then the war escalated and my own friends started to think that I was a spy for Voldemort because I was a werewolf. If my own friends could think that about me then what would my family think?”

 

“I wasn’t even allowed to take care of my own godson after his parents died, hell I wasn’t even allowed to publicly acknowledge that I was Harry’s godfather because of being a werewolf. I tried to get custody of him but I was threatened with time in Azkaban if I didn’t stop trying to get him and Dumbledore was of no help at all. I was homeless and jobless and I had no one left.” Remus continued.

 

 

Lucius stood there and let the irate man vent, it seemed like it was a long time coming and he figured it would do Remus some good to get all his frustrations out. He never realized how difficult a life Remus had led until he had started on his little rant.

 

 

“Four years ago I finally get a break and Dumbledore offered me a job here as long as I took the Wolfsbane potion and stayed away from the students on the full moon. I finally had a chance to see Harry again and get to know him as a teenager but then I had to throw all that away by fucking up and almost killing my own godson and his friends because I was too concentrated on the innocence of Sirius and my absolute hatred of Peter to pay attention to the fact that I had forgotten to take the Wolfsbane potion because I had forgotten that it was a full moon that night.”

 

“I quit before the parent outrage started to pour in, I was homeless and jobless again and I was no longer able to see Harry. My best friend was on the run because he was accused of something that he hadn’t done, granted I myself thought he was guilty too but that was because there was actual evidence that showed he could be the spy whereas they thought I was one simply because of being a werewolf. Everyone I care about has turned on me at some point in my life, what would make you any different from them?”

 

“Because I love you, Remus. The chances of me ever leaving you willingly don’t even exist. I understand that you’ve had a hard and cruel life but I want the chance to prove to you that you do deserve everything you want, that you can have a family without having to worry about it being taken away from you just because of what you are.” Lucius told the younger man.

 

“I don’t know how to be any other way than I am right now.” Remus told the blonde with a look of desperation on his face.

 

“Then let me show you, we can go at whatever pace you want. I’m not going anywhere, Remus and I’m sure as Merlin not going to give up on what we could have together.” Lucius told him as he walked closer and rested his hands on Remus’ shoulders.

 

“I just want to be happy for once, I just don’t know how to be.”

 

“Then let me show you.”

 

 

Once those words were out of the blondes mouth he lent forward and pressed his lips against Remus’. It was a tentative kiss to start off with, just a slight touch of their lips before Lucius pulled away and looked the other man in the eyes. He saw hope and longing in them along with a hint of fear that stemmed from Remus thinking that Lucius would pull away.

 

 

“You need to let yourself be happy for once, Remus. Don’t let what people have said about you in the past ruin what you can have now.”

 

 

Any further conversation became impossible because Remus practically threw himself forward and kissed the older wizard. Maybe Lucius was right, maybe he should just let things between them progress instead of denying what both he and his creature wanted.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

“What are they doing?” Harry was asked as he came back from checking on Remus and Lucius.

 

“Your father has Remus pushed up against a wall and they’re making out like a couple of horny teenagers.” Harry told the blonde.

 

“That is an image I never wanted in my head.” Draco said with a sour look on his face.

 

“Well, you asked so I told you.” Harry replied with a laugh.

 

“Where did Professor Snape go?” Pansy asked the other teen.

 

“He has patrol tonight so he had to leave early.” Harry replied as he started to clean up the training dummies they had been using.

 

“Tonight went pretty well for the first meeting, not as many people turned up as I thought would.” Draco added to the conversation.

 

“Yeah, I noticed that too. They may turn up at the next meeting, we won’t know till next Saturday night. The twins will be here with some of their new gadgets for us to try out.” Harry told the three others in the chamber.

 

“How long do you think they are going to be in there? I have homework I need to do.” Pansy asked as she looked at the open door that lead to Salazar’s quarters.

 

“Let’s go find out, shall we?” Harry asked as he started towards the entrance to the rooms.

 

 

Harry slowly walked into Salazar’s chambers to see whether or not his godfather was still acting like a horny teenager with Draco’s father. Upon entering the living room, he found it to be empty, they must have left for Remus’ quarters.

 

 

“All clear, they seem to have left.” Harry told them as he grabbed his robe from the chair he had been using.

 

“Great, let’s get going.” Draco mumbled as he got up from his seat and started to head out.

 

“At least they went back to Remus’ quarters instead of just getting it on in the living room.” Harry reassured the blonde as the three of them left the chamber to head back to their dorm.

 

“Now that I would like to see.”

 

“Pansy! What the hell?” Draco yelled as he stared horrified at the girl.

 

“What? I’m just being truthful, your dad is really good looking and Professor Lupin is pretty easy on the eyes too.” Pansy defended as they walked through the dungeons towards the Slytherin common room.

 

 

Harry cracked up at the look on the blonde’s face at Pansy’s reply, Draco’s horrified look at the prospect of anyone finding his father sexually attractive was rather hilarious. He was happy that his father had finally managed to get Remus to admit his feelings for him but he really didn’t want to know about the details.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

 

 

The following morning found the seventh year Slytherin’s watching the Gryffindor table surreptitiously, specifically the section of table that had the two youngest Weasley’s sitting there.

 

Harry had sent off a letter to the twins explaining the situation and they had immediately sent Harry a package containing three potions and a piece of parchment with instructions on it. Harry had jumped at the chance to get back at the two red heads and had tasked Dobby with the job, the hyperactive elf had jumped at the chance to help the young wizard and took the potions with his usual enthusiasm.

 

Now all they had to do was wait for the potions to take effect, Harry wasn’t sure what they would do, all he knew was that Fred and George had given him strict instructions about what order to add them to the drinks.

 

While the Slytherin’s waited for the results of the potions, Severus had been spending most of breakfast surreptitiously watching Harry as the younger wizard ate his breakfast. He was curious as to why Harry was paying so much attention to the Gryffindor table, as well as why Dumbledore seemed to look rather pleased.

 

Severus had looked away from Harry long enough to take a mouthful of his rather strong coffee before he looked back up just in time to see Harry spit his mouthful of pumpkin juice clear across the table before he broke out into raucous laughter soon followed by the rest of the seventh year Slytherin’s. Looking over to the Gryffindor table, where their attention seemed to be drawn, Severus noted the new added features to the two youngest Weasley’s and it took all his mental stretch to prevent himself from busting out a laugh himself.

 

In place of Ronald’s normal ears were two long furred ears that stood up on top of the boy’s head. If memory served, Severus believed them to be the ears most commonly found on Donkey’s and his face was slightly covered in grey fur. The same had occurred to the Weasley girl, the only difference being her fur colour, a light dirty brown colour.

 

The other house tables had started to notice the ruckus and had started to look around for the source when Ginny Weasley jumped up from the table and ran from the hall screaming. The twins had come up with a way for their little brother to make an arse of himself, literally. The boy’s face was so red Harry was wondering when it was going to blow, without saying a word the red head rose from his seat and stormed out of the hall leaving most of the student body in stitches as they got a look at the short stubby tail that had started to sprout from his tail bone.

 

 

“Remind me to send the twins a thank you letter, that was rather classic.” Harry said as he finally calmed down after Ron had left.

 

“What else is supposed to happen?” Pansy asked the bespectacled boy.

 

“From what Fred and George would tell me about the potions, they are a sort of slow release reaction. For every derogatory word either of them spout, whether it be about a student or teacher, a new feature will show itself. That part kind of threw me when I read it because they didn’t exactly say what the potions were going to do.” Harry explained as he went back to eating his breakfast, still unaware of his house heads intense gaze focused upon him.

 

“Those two are genius, I’d love to know how they come up with this sort of stuff.” Blaise added to the conversation.

 

“I don’t think anyone knows how their brains work, it would probably be an impossible task to accomplish. I once heard Mrs. Weasley saying that she wished that they would use their evil genius for something far more productive than a joke shop but I’m pretty sure the lecture went in one ear and straight out the other like everything involving them being serious usually does.” Harry told them.

 

“The wizarding world is going to be in for a major shock if either of them ever spawn any offspring.” Draco added.

 

“The world would be at their mercy.”

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

By the time dinner had rolled around, both younger Weasley’s were sporting new features. According to Hermione they had some rather choice words to say about Harry during their little self-imposed quarantine in the Gryffindor common room. The pair had sequestered themselves in the common room after breakfast and had refused to go to any of their morning classes until Professor McGonagall had turned up and proceeded to deduct points and issue them both with a weeks’ worth of detention for missing their classes.

 

Ron had ended up with his teeth growing bigger and looking more like a donkeys as he mumbled under his breath about how much of a bitch McGonagall was for giving him detentions. Ginny, on the other hand, wisely kept her mouth shut once she noticed her brothers new added feature. Of course that didn’t last long once she started in on her usual spiel about why Harry had yet to succumb to the potion she was having put into his pumpkin juice.

 

The pair had even tried to get themselves a sick pass from Madam Pomphrey but she had just rolled her eyes at the two and told them to leave before she called their head of house to the infirmary to deal with them. All this was done with the mediwitch trying to keep a straight face at the state of the two.

 

Severus, of course, didn’t hold back with his taunts when it came to the seventh years’ potions class after lunch, he took great pleasure in bringing up the red heads misfortune every chance he got. He also turned a deaf ear whenever another student would make braying sounds at the boy.

 

All in all, the day went rather badly for the two Weasley’s and Harry was looking forward to see what changes the next day would bring.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

Voldemort sat on his ornate throne in the large receiving room inside his manor, waiting for Wormtail to return with Bellatrix. He knew the woman was beyond mental but she would do perfectly in his revenge on Lucius for his betrayal.

 

Twenty-six years. Twenty-six years that man had been spying on him with Voldemort being none the wiser, which meant the blonde aristocrat had been Dumbledore’s little information bitch since Lucius had been indoctrinated into the Death Eaters when he was eighteen.

 

He had noticed the blonde being sneakier than he usually was, he just thought it was because of the young Malfoy’s refusal to take the mark. When Voldemort had found out that the young Malfoy heir had run away he had Wormtail follow Lucius to see if the man’s son would turn up. He wasn’t expecting for Wormtail to find out that his right hand man was the one to orchestrate the boy’s disappearance, nor was he expecting to find out the reason why.

 

He had a cell in the dungeon all set up for the blondes extended stay, he was planning on torturing him for as long as he could. He had twenty-six years’ worth of pain to inflict and he wanted to make it last.

 

 

“My Lord, you called for me?” Bellatrix called as she entered the room.

 

“It has come to my attention that one of my most faithful followers has been spying on me since they first joined.” Voldemort informed his psychotic follower.

 

“Who is it, Master?” Bellatrix asked as she moved closer to the Dark Lord.

 

“Lucius.”

 

“Lucius? For sure I thought it would be Snape, what with him being in Dumbledore’s hip pocket and all.” She questioned.

 

“Wormtail has been following him around since his son disappeared this summer. He found out that Lucius had orchestrated his son’s disappearance to keep him from joining the Death Eater ranks. Wormtail followed Lucius to Hogwarts and listened in on a meeting that occurred between Dumbledore and Lucius.”

 

“What do you want me to do?”

 

“I want you to find him, he is staying somewhere that Wormtail was unable to access. The wards are preventing him from entering to see what is being hidden. Once you have found him I want you to bring him here, I have plans for my wayward follower and I will have my revenge.”

 

“Of course, my Lord. I will leave immediately.” Bellatrix said as she bowed to Voldemort before retreating from the room, her usual sadistic smirk spreading across her face.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

“How are your studies going?” Severus asked his godson as the blonde sat down in the chair in front of his desk.

 

“They’re going rather well, I’m second in every class except for Defence and Arithmancy. Who knew Harry would be so good at Arithmancy? Defence I expected but he’s sped his way to the top of the class and we’re only two months into the school year.” Draco replied.

 

“He wasted four years on Trelawney’s class, I never understood why he picked that class. That woman is nothing more than a hack.” The potions master said as he pulled another parchment in front of him.

 

“He thought the class would be a good bludge, didn’t much like it after Trelawney started predicting his death in every lesson.” Draco said with a chuckle.

 

“The boy may be good looking but he can be rather dense sometimes.” Severus said aloud, unaware that he had done so.

 

“Say what now?” Draco almost shouted once the words his godfather had let slip registered.

 

 

Severus jumped at the sudden rise in the blonde’s voice and wondered what for until realisation set in and he looked at his godson with a look akin to a dear caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck. Schooling his features, the dark haired wizard looked away from Draco and started marking the homework parchments in front of him.

 

 

“Na Uh, you are so not going to act as if those words didn’t leave your mouth. You have the hots for Harry.” Draco told the man.

 

“I have no idea what you are blathering on about.”

 

“Yes you do, I clearly heard you say that Harry was good looking. I’ve noticed the looks, Sev, I’m not blind. Even Blaise has seen the way your eyes tend to linger on a certain part of the Boy Wonders anatomy as he walks away.” Draco said to the man as he reached across the desk and removed the quill from his godfathers clenched fist.

 

“I do not stare.”

 

“There is no point in denying it, you are smitten for Harry.”

 

“Nothing will ever come of my feelings for the boy, Draco. The point is moot, someone like him would never want someone like me so just drop it.” The dour man finally snapped and shouted at the boys sitting across from him.

 

“You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”

 

“Just let it go, please.”

 

“Okay, Sev. I’ll drop it, for now, but don’t think that I am going to stay quiet for long. If anyone deserves happiness, it sure as hell is you.” With those final words Draco rose from his seat and exited the office, leaving Severus to stare blankly at the desk top lost deep in thought.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

Lucius had the distinct feeling that he was being watched the instant he had entered Diagon Alley. He wasn't sure where the person doing the watching was, but he could feel the tiny hairs on the back of his neck standing at attention as though in warning to an appending attack.

 

He had left Remus at the castle so he could pay a visit to his family vault, with every intention of getting out his great – grandmothers betrothal ring that he had had the forethought to not give to his soon to be ex-wife. He had every intention of having the rings many charms, that his rather over protective great-grandfather had put upon it, renewed and have a few more added. Thankfully, the ring was made from white gold so he didn’t need to worry about accidently poisoning his lycanthrope mate.

 

Lucius was only a few feet away from the steps when all of a sudden his world started to spin and he felt the tell tail jerk of a portkey activating, the last thing he heard was the maniacal cackling of his deranged sister-in-law. The portkey dumped him out in a dark room that smell of damp and mildew, he knew where he was without needing a light source to help his vision.

 

The blonde just knew that somehow Voldemort had discovered his treachery and had employed the help of his most loyal and psychotic follower to catch him. What he didn’t know was how the megalomaniac of a Dark Lord had discovered him. He knew from previous encounters like this that Voldemort would make him stew for a couple of days before starting on the torture, hopefully he would be found before then, he wasn’t too keen on being tortured to near death before being healed and then having it happen all over again.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

“It has been done, my lord. He has been transported to one of the cells in the dungeon.” Bellatrix informed Voldemort.

 

“Very good, Bella. Do not inform anyone of these events, I will call a meeting after I have paid a visit to our guest.”

 

 

The insane woman gave a maniacal grin as she bowed and then backed out of the room. Wormtail was still in a snivelling mess on the floor in front of the Dark Lord, he had to of done something to incur the wrath of the snake like man. The thought made the grin on her face grow as she started to skip down the hall cackling as she went.


	12. Things Heat Up: Part Two

**Title:** Sudden Changes

 **Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

 **Warnings:** Slash, violence, mentions of child abuse and language. Alcohol consumption.

 **Pairings:** HP/SS, DM/BZ, LM/RL, FW/AJ, GW/OW, HG/CW

 

 

 

_Never feel self-pity, the most destructive emotion there is. How awful to be caught up in the terrible squirrel cage of self. – Millicent Fenwick._

**Chapter Twelve:** Things Heat Up: Part Two

 

“Hi Harry.” Hermione greeted as she took the seat next to her friend.

 

 

They were in the library for a study session, with it being their final year at Hogwarts their class assignments and homework were in abundance. Harry, Hermione, Draco and Blaise had organised their little study group to keep up with the work that their teachers seemed to be dishing out after every lesson.

 

 

“Hey, Hermione. Draco and Blaise should be here soon, they got a little preoccupied back in the common room.” Harry replied as he looked up from the Arithmancy text he was reading through.

 

“Wow, they’re really going at it like rabbits.” Came the reply from the girl.

 

“Yeah, I think they’re trying to make up for all the lost time that was built up during their mutual denial. They need to remember the silencing charms at night, Theo looked a little green the other morning.” Harry told her with a laugh.

 

“That’s hot.” Hermione said with a lecherous grin forming on her lips.

 

“Hermione! Honestly woman, you’re as bad as Pansy. She sat there staring at them this morning, I swear I could see drool trailing from the corner of her mouth. I had to bodily drag her away from their little spectacle because her eyes were glued to their lips, which pretty much looked glued to each other as is.” Harry exclaimed.

 

“Sorry, Harry but the thought of two guys as hot as Draco and Blaise making out is really sexy.” Hermione told him.

 

“How are things with you and Charlie going?” Harry asked, desperate for a change of conversation.

 

“Things are going good, I got a letter from him this morning. He’s got a few hatchlings that are taking up a lot of his time at the moment but he’s hoping to get away for a week during Christmas.” Hermione told him excitedly, she was quite content to talk about Charlie.

 

“That’s good, has he been having any more problems with his mum?” Harry asked her.

 

 

The Weasley matriarch had been causeing problems for her second eldest son lately, she was still harping on about him not having settled down to give her grandchildren. The dragon keeper had not yet told her that he had found someone, he didn’t need his mother butting into his relationship with Hermione. His mother had already stuck her nose into Bill and Fleur’s relationship and had almost caused them to split before they even had a chance to actually get married.

 

She obviously hadn’t learnt her lesson after that little ordeal, Bill had stopped talking to his mother and only interacted with her at Order meetings if it required him to. He hadn’t even told his mother that Fleur was pregnant with their first child, the only ones who did know, were the twins and Charlie and now Harry and Hermione.

 

 

“She’s driving him crazy, because Bill is no longer talking to her she’s been bugging him more. I think Charlie is pretty close to snapping, the way his parents are treating you isn’t really helping the cause either.” Hermione informed him.

 

“That’s rough.”

 

 

Before Harry could continue the conversation, Draco and Blaise came into the library and made their way to the table that harry and Hermione were currently occupying. Draco had a harried look on his face that sent Harry’s nerves on edge.

 

 

“What’s wrong?” Hermione asked when she noticed the look on the blonde’s face.

 

“Have you guys seen or heard from my dad today?” Draco asked as he sat at the table.

 

“No, I haven’t seen him since his little make out session with Remus in Salazar’s quarters.” Harry said.

 

“We just bumped into Remus on our way here, he said that my dad went to Diagon Alley to run a few errands but that was six hours ago and Remus hasn’t heard from him.” Draco explained to the other two sitting opposite him.

 

“That’s not good. You don’t think Voldemort found out about him, do you?” Hermione asked in a whisper as a couple of third year Ravenclaw’s walked passed their table.

 

“I don’t know, how would he have?” Draco added as he leant forward, a look of trepidation on his face.

 

“I’m going to go and see Severus, maybe he can shed some light. If Voldemort has your dad then he is sure to call a meeting soon, either that or he has called a meeting and your dad has just gone there.” Harry said as he packed up his books into his bag and headed out after giving Draco a reassuring look.

 

 

Draco didn’t look too reassured, he still had a look of worry on his face as he started to pull his books out of his bag. He needed to do something that would keep his mind off of whether or not his father had been found out by Voldemort.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

Lucius’ estimations of when Voldemort would start to torture him were way off, seems the psychotic man was rather incensed about his supposed right hand man betraying him all this time. He had made the blonde stew in his cell for a good four hours before he ventured down into the dungeon he had his Death Eaters build in Riddle Manor. There was nothing more disconcerting than having a man with a face like a seriously deformed snake stare at you for a good ten minutes before flinging the first of many curses at you.

 

He had been on the receiving end of Voldemort’s cruciatus curse before, most, if not all, of the Death Eaters had. For whatever imagined slight that the Dark Lord could think of he would just randomly start torturing his followers for the sake of it. The smarter ones had learned to stay at the back of the crowed during meetings, less chance of being seen and having a curse flung at them.

 

The first cruciatus couldn’t have lasted for more than ten seconds but it felt like an eternity. The more anger put into the spell, the more painful it was. Voldemort must have been really pissed because Lucius’ nerve endings felt like they were on fire after that first curse.

 

The hits just kept coming and it got to the point where Lucius was no longer lucid enough to discern how much time had passed. Once done with him, Voldemort had spat a few rather uncouth words at the prone wizard before storming from the room, ordering one of the guarding Death Eaters to seal the open wounds but to leave Lucius in pain. There would be no more fun to be had if the traitor bled out before his revenge was fully enacted.

 

Lucius lay on the floor of his cell with his left leg laying at an odd angle, his hair was no longer the bright blonde he was known for. It was caked in blood, dirt and sweat and hung in clumps about his face. Blood flowed from his ears and nose and at one point he had bitten his tongue so hard that his mouth was full of blood. Voldemort had even thrown in a couple sectumsempra’s into the mix and his chest was covered in cuts.

 

The last thing he saw, before the bliss of unconsciousness set in, was the junior Death Eater that Voldemort had assigned to healing his open wounds. Part of his mind recognised the young man in front of him but he was in so much pain that it was nothing more than a fleeting thought before his vision went black.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

Harry went through several short cuts to get to the dungeons quicker, something in the back of his mind was telling him that Lucius’ disappearance was not a good thing. If Voldemort had somehow found out about the blonde’s true allegiance, then it was a good guarantee that the mad man wouldn’t wait long before he started torturing the man.

 

Harry was really hoping that he wouldn’t find Severus in his office, if the man was there then the chances of Lucius being in trouble were doubled. If the potions master wasn’t there then it just meant that Lucius had been called to a meeting.

 

As soon as Harry got to Severus’ office he knocked on the door and hoped no one would answer. Unfortunately, luck wasn’t on his side and Severus answered the door.

 

 

“What are you after, Mr. Potter?”

 

“Can we talk, in private?” Harry asked as a fifth year Slytherin walked past.

 

“Come in.”

 

 

Harry walked into the office and waited for his head of house to close the door, he then followed the man to his desk and sat in the chair in front of it.

 

 

“What were you after?”

 

“Has Voldemort called any meetings in the last six hours?”

 

“Not that I’m aware of, why?”  Severus asked as he looked up at the teen across from him.

 

“Lucius went to Diagon alley six hours ago and no one has heard from him since. I just have this feeling that something is terribly wrong.” Harry informed him.

 

 

Before Severus could respond to Harry’s statement, he clutched at his left arm where his Dark Mark was burnt into the skin. They both looked up at the same time and Harry had a look of apprehension on his face.

 

 

“That’s not good.” Harry said as Severus stood from his desk and went to the cupboard on the left of his desk.

 

“If Voldemort has Lucius then this meeting will be about it, I’ll inform you as soon as I can about what is going on.” Severus told Harry as he pulled his Death Eater mask and cloak out of the cupboard.

 

“What do I tell Remus?”

 

“I don’t know; I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

 

“Be careful, if Voldemort has found out about Lucius then it’s only a matter of time before he finds out about you.” Harry told him as he followed Severus out of the room.

 

“I will, bye.”

 

 

With that Severus rushed off through the castle to get to the apparition point outside the gate. Harry was not looking forward to telling Remus that his mate may have been captured by the Voldemort and is most likely currently being tortured by the psychotic man.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

The next hour was the longest of Remus’ life, the waiting was killing him. His inner beast was stirring just below the surface, agitated by Remus’ worry, it didn’t help that it was so close to the full moon either. Remus knew that something had happened, Lucius had been gone for too long for him to of been called to a meeting. If his mate had been captured by Voldemort, then he dreaded the state Lucius would be in when he was found.

 

Remus was sitting in his office with his godson and his friends, he knew they were trying to distract him whilst they waited for news from Severus. He was grateful for their company; he would go crazy being by himself while worrying for his mate. He just hoped that Severus would hurry up and return so they would know what was going on.

 

 

“This wait is killing me.” Draco broke the silence that had fallen over the room.

.

“I know, what is taking Professor Snape so long to get back?” Hermione added.

 

“Maybe your dad really was called to a meeting and they’ll be back here soon.” Pansy told the blonde.

 

“Then why was dad missing for six hours before Severus was called?” Draco asked angrily.

 

“Draco, calm down. Getting angry won’t get us anywhere.” Harry said as he placed his hand on the blonde’s shoulder and directed him back down into his seat.

 

“He’s right, I’m as agitated as you are but we need to stay calm while we wait.” Remus told his mate’s son.

 

 

Just then, the man in question walked into the room, the look on his face proved the fear that they were all feeling.

 

 

“Voldemort has him, doesn’t he?” Harry asked.

 

“Yes, apparently Wormtail had been following him around since Narcissa had informed Voldemort of Draco’s disappearance. The rat had followed him to Hogwarts and overheard a meeting between Lucius and Dumbledore. Bellatrix captured him when he went to Diagon Alley and sent him to the dungeon cells in Riddle Manor.” Severus informed them as he took a seat.

 

“How are we going to get him out?” Draco asked, beginning to panic.

 

“I informed Dumbledore of the news and he has refused to allow me to get Lucius out. He doesn’t want to lose another spy, as far as he is concerned Lucius is expendable.” Severus told them.

 

“What? That’s fucking bullshit.” Draco shouted as he rose from his chair.

 

“That’s exactly what I told him, unfortunately most of the other Order members agreed with him.”

 

“Of course they would, it’s not their lives on the line.” Harry added.

 

“Can’t we do something?” Hermione asked.

 

“It’s too big a risk for Harry to go in, there are too many Death Eaters there right now for any of you to get through. However, there may be another way.”  Severus told them.

 

“What?” Remus asked, he was trying to keep his inner beast from bursting out.

 

“There is another spy.” Severus said.

 

“What? Who?” Harry asked incredulously.

 

“He’s a junior Death Eater, only recruited this summer. He joined at my request to help me steer away some of the younger members. So far he has been able to help three wizards and a witch to escape their fate of becoming Death Eaters. He has been put in charge of keeping Lucius healed enough that he won’t be dying anytime soon.” Severus informed them.

 

“How can we get him to help?” Blaise asked.

 

“Draco, all of your house elves can find a member of your family?” Harry asked, an idea forming in his head.

 

“Yeah, it’s part of their magic. Any elf bonded to a wizarding family is able to find any member of that family as long as they are alive. Why do you want to know?” Draco asked the other boy.

 

“Dobby.” Was all he said.

 

“Of course, even though he is no longer a Malfoy elf he is still tied into the family through his lineage.” Hermione said.

 

“Exactly, which means that Dobby will be able to locate Lucius’ exact location. If your spy can temporarily take down the anti-apparition wards on the cell that Lucius is being kept in, then Dobby can apparate in and get him out.” Harry told Severus.

 

“Well, it sounds like we have a plan then.” Severus said as he stood from his seat.

 

“I’ll send word to my spy and work out a time to put our plan into action. You need to sort things out with that crazed house elf.” Severus told Harry as he exited the room.

 

 

With the plan of rescue figured out all Harry had to do was call Dobby to him and inform the house elf of what they needed him to do. Within seconds of calling the overzealous elf, Dobby had appeared in Remus’ office and asked Harry what he wanted him to do.

 

 

“Dobby be happy to, just tell Dobby when and he’ll find old master.”

 

“Hermione, can you and Pansy go and inform Madam Pomphrey that she’ll have a patient very soon. Let her know who it is and what’s going on.” Harry asked the two girls after Dobby left the room.

 

 

Both girls nodded before getting up from their seats and heading out of the office. Harry turned to Blaise and told him to take Draco back to their room to keep him occupied whilst they waited for their plan to go through.

 

The two boys left with Blaise’s hand on the small of the blonde’s back leading him out of the room. The only people left were Harry and Remus and Harry needed to think of something for his godfather to do while they waited. He could see how drained the man was and he was really hoping they could get Lucius back before any permanent damage could be done to the man.

 

 

“Remus, I think you’ll be of better use in the infirmary, Madam Pomphrey is going to need help when Lucius arrives and it will be a way for you to see him.” Harry told the man.

 

“I don’t know, Harry. What if he can’t be found? I don’t know what I’m going to do if I lose him.” Remus said as he looked up at the boy in front of him.

 

“He’s going to need all the support and help you can give him. Both of us know that he won’t be coming back unscathed, Voldemort is too vicious for that to happen. Just from some of my visions I know what to expect and he’s going to need you now more than ever. Knowing that you are there with him will help better than if you holed yourself up in your room to hide away from the results of his imprisonment.” Harry reassured him.

 

“Okay, I’ll go to the hospital wing and help Pomphrey get things ready.” Emus told his godson, a look of determination on his face.

 

“Okay, I’ll head back to the Slytherin common room to await word from Severus, he should be back soon with word on whether or not his spy can help out.” Harry told Remus.

 

 

The two wizards walked together as far as they needed to before heading towards their separate destinations. Their plan was in the works and they only needed to wait for it to be put into action, hopefully there would be a man left to rescue.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

Severus walked through Riddle Manor as though he owned the place, there were perks to being Voldemort’s personal potion maker. The man was a few puppy’s short of a pound and was even more evil than Grindelwald and Hitler put together but the man commanded the respect of his followers and he got it in spades. Even though ninety percent of them where scared shitless of the man, they knew when to keep quiet and when to keep out of the way of the inner circle.

 

Severus’ journey to the dungeons barely garnered a look let alone a second, he passed several of the outer circle members before he came across the one inner circle member he really didn’t want to run into. Bellatrix was making her way down the hall in the opposite direction from the dungeon, which meant one thing and one thing only. Voldemort had allowed her to play. The look of pure malice and glee on her face was tell enough without Severus even needing to ask what she had been up to.

 

 “Ah, Severus. Have you come to play?”

 

“I’m not in the mood to converse with you, Bella. Don’t you have someone else to torture?”

 

“Now, now, that’s no way to behave. He screamed so deliciously, when the Dark Lord is done with him there will be nothing left.” With a high pitched cackle, the insane witch wandered down the hall, talking about the pretty screams and all the blood.

 

 

With his heart pounding in his chest, Severus sped up his pace and moved faster down the hall. If Voldemort had allowed Bella to play with Lucius, then it was only a matter of time before he allowed more Death Eaters to have their fun. He needed to hurry if he was to get his friend out of there in time to save his life.


	13. Things Heat Up: Part Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here it is, part three. I hope you guys enjoy it. Next installment will be a bigger time jump, perhaps Christmas with a few confessions thrown in. I wonder whose.

**Title:** Sudden Changes

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

**Warnings:** Slash, violence, mentions of child abuse and language. Alcohol consumption.

**Pairings:** HP/SS, DM/BZ, LM/RL, FW/AJ, GW/OW, HG/CW

 

 

 

_Strength is born in the deep silence of long-suffering hearts; not amid joy._

**Chapter Thirteen:** Things Heat Up: Part Three

 

 

All Lucius knew was pain, nothing else was registering in his brain. Every single muscle ached, his brain felt like it was on fire and his throat felt so raw he could barely swallow without pain. He wasn’t sure how long he had been in this cell, all he knew was that he was suffering never ending pain.

 

He had just been visited by his deranged sister-in-law, and true to her sadistic nature she took great pleasure in causing the most pain possible. His watcher, a junior Death Eater he never really paid attention to, was currently closing the open wounds that had been left by Bella. Voldemort wanted at least a week of torture out of him so he made sure that none of the injuries dealt to him would cause death, only pain and suffering.

 

The only thing going through his mind was that he would never again see his son, nor would he have the chance to have the life with Remus that he was looking forward to ever since the scarred man had agreed to give them a chance. Their two faces were all that flashed through his mind during the unending torture, they were all that was keeping him sane.

 

His more serious cuts had just been closed when he heard voices outside his cell, involuntarily he whimpered and curled further into himself. He wouldn’t be able to last if they kept coming down to torture him.

 

He couldn’t hear what was being said, the speaker was too quiet, however he did sigh in relief when whoever it was left the room. The junior Death Eater went back to guarding his cell and Lucius let unconsciousness finally kick in.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

An hour and a half after Severus left found Harry making his way to the man’s quarters after he received a letter requesting his presence. He had waited impatiently for news from the potions master ever since he had left to head back to Riddle Manor to put their plan into action. He had started to worry after the hour mark had passed and was getting ready to do something when his head of house’s owl had arrived.

 

It was almost ten o’clock at night and curfew for the seventh years would be going into effect soon, so Harry made sure he got to Severus’ quarters quick enough to avoid being seen by any prefect. From what Hermione had told him, the Gryffindor prefect would be on duty in the dungeon that night so he needed to be extra careful.

 

In the hour since Severus had left, Harry had to get Draco to take a calming draft before the boy burned himself out from worry. They finally calmed him down enough where his exhaustion finally kicked in and he allowed Blaise to take him to bed, the young Italian hadn’t left his boyfriend’s side ever since they found out about Lucius’ fate and he didn’t plan on going anywhere anytime in the future.

 

After a close encounter with Filch’s creepy cat, Harry finally made it to Severus’ quarters and knocked on the door. He didn’t have to wait long before the man answered the door and ushered Harry into the room.

 

 

“Everything is set, I talked to my spy and he informed me that no more torture has been scheduled for tonight. A meeting is set for tomorrow morning at ten which is when our plan will go into action. Dobby will need to apparate in just after ten when everyone is there, there will be too many people and too much confusion for anyone to know who let down the wards around Lucius’ cell.” Severus informed Harry once the boy was inside the room.

 

“Okay, I’ll let Dobby know and I’ll go and talk to Madam Pomphrey. They have been waiting for the go ahead ever since you left so I’m going to have to tell them that there is a change in the plan. Why can’t we get him out tonight?” Harry asked.

 

“Because Voldemort has doubled the guard and has dismissed my spy for the night. There would be no chance of getting him out if we tried it tonight, the risk is too great and there is a chance that he will be caught before he can even be rescued.” Severus informed him.

 

“How is he?” Harry asked, dreading the answer.

 

“He’s in really bad shape, Bellatrix had just paid him a visit when I showed up. You can guess at what she did to him. From what I was able to see, he has at least one broken leg and severe cuts on his back and chest. I can’t even guess at what else has been done to him.” Severus said as he poured himself a glass of fire whiskey, after seeing his friend in that state he needed a good stiff drink to calm the rage coursing through his system.

 

“I dread Remus’ reaction when he sees Lucius, with it being so close to the full moon we are going to have to keep a close eye on him. The last thing we need is him going into a rage and terrifying the students.” Harry said as he took the offered glass that the older man had poured for him.

 

“I’ll have a few potions on hand to help try and keep the man docile, we don’t need Dumbledore coming in and seeing what we are doing.” Severus said.

 

“How are we going to keep the old coot away from the infirmary? Doesn’t Madame Pomphrey have to tell him when someone is admitted?” Harry asked.

 

“Like in the muggle world we have patient doctor confidentiality. Besides, Pomphrey has sided with you in this war and has let it be known to Dumbledore what she really thinks of him and the way he has been treating you.” Severus told him as he got up to refill his glass.

 

“That’s good then, maybe we can get Professor McGonagall to run some interference as well.” Harry suggested.

 

“I’ll have a talk with her first thing in the morning, it’s almost curfew so you need to go and see Madame Pomphrey now before you get caught out of your common room.” Severus told Harry as he got up from his seat to escort the other wizard out.

 

“Okay, I’ll see you in the morning.” Harry said giving the man a concerned look, he had downed five glasses of Fire Whiskey in the short time they had been talking and was already making his way back to the bottle before Harry had even left the room.

 

 

Shaking his head, Harry closed the door behind himself and headed down the corridor that would lead him up to the hospital wing. Looking at his watch, Harry noticed that it was five minutes past curfew and was glad that he had the forethought to bring his cloak and map when he had left the common room. Stopping in an alcove just before the stairs that led up to the first floor of the castle, Harry pulled his invisibility cloak out from under his jumper and proceeded to put it on. Once secured under the cloak he pulled the map out of his pocket and said the password to activate it.

 

Looking at the map he saw Severus pacing in his quarters, looking along the dungeon corridors he noticed the Gryffindor prefect in the corridor outside the Slytherin common room, no doubt lurking around trying to catch any stray Slytherin. Noting that the way ahead of him was clear, Harry folded the map up and headed up the stairs.

 

With Pansy being a Slytherin prefect and Hermione being the head girl there would be no questions as to why the two witches were out after curfew. He may even get Pansy to follow him down to the dungeons so his return would go unhindered.

 

Hearing a noise around the corner, Harry quietly ducked into a nearby alcove and unfolded his map. Upon looking at the way ahead he saw that it was only Filch, that man needed to wear a bell around his neck. As long as he stuck to the left wall then he should be able to get by him without being heard, thankfully his irritating cat wasn’t with him. Mrs. Norris was somehow able to sense him when he was under the cloak and he really didn’t need to be caught.

 

Fifteen minutes later and a near miss with Peeves, found Harry at the entrance to the hospital wing. Looking at the map revealed that Hermione and Pansy were the only ones inside the room with Madame Pomphrey and thankfully the door was still open. Harry walked into the room and removed his cloak which resulted in Hermione letting out a rather high pitched squeal upon seeing him appearing out of nowhere.

 

 

“Harry, you ass. A little warning next time.” Hermione cried as she clutched at her chest.

 

“Sorry, Hermione, didn’t mean to scare you. It was fun though.” Harry said with a laugh.

 

“Have you heard anything?” Pansy asked once she was able to stop laughing, she had been facing Hermione with her back to the door so she didn’t notice Harry’s unveiling until Hermione had squealed.

 

“Yeah, Severus just got back. Voldemort has doubled the guard and has sent Severus’ spy home for the night. The plan is to send Dobby in tomorrow morning at just after ten during the next Death Eater meeting. Severus’ spy will be able to take the wards down and no one will be the wiser with all those people mulling around.” Harry explained.

 

“From what Severus has told me, Lucius is in really bad shape so he’s going to need all your expertise Madame Pomphrey.” Harry told the Medi-Witch.

 

“Do you know what I need to be prepared for?” Pomphrey asked.

 

“At least one of his legs is severely broken, deep cuts over his back and chest that have been sealed but not healed. I’m guessing multiple cruciatus curses and Merlin knows what else. Professor Snape is also going to put together a supply of potions to help keep Remus calm. Once he sees the state his mate is in and with it being so close to the full moon, he’s going to need to be in a sedate mood to be allowed in here tomorrow.” Harry explained further.

 

“I’ll make sure I have anything I need, what I don’t have I’ll just floo the order through to Severus. I’ll have one of the private rooms set up and ready for Mr. Malfoy’s arrival.” Madame Pomphrey told them before she left to go and have a look at her potion stock.

 

“How are we going to keep this from reaching Dumbledore?” Hermione asked.

 

“Severus is going to have a chat with Professor McGonagall in the morning to see if she can run some interference with Dumbledore tomorrow. With it being Saturday it should be easier to stay under the old coot’s radar while we help Lucius.” Harry told the two girls.

 

“All right, well we should all head back to our common rooms.” Hermione said.

 

“Pansy, walk back with me. I’ll be under the cloak but if I walk along with you I don’t have to worry about bumping into anybody.” Harry asked.

 

“Okay Harry, I’ll see you tomorrow, Hermione.”

 

 

With all that out of the way, Harry put his cloak back on and headed out the door with the two girls, Hermione went straight while Harry and Pansy went right to head back to the dungeons.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

Remus couldn’t sleep. His beast was restless and he was agitated and upset about having to wait for the next day to finally have his mate safe and sound in the Hogwarts hospital wing. He had received a letter from Harry three hours ago explaining what was going on and he hadn’t been able to settle since.

 

He had tried grading the third year Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw homework assignments that he had on his desk but to no avail. He had tried drinking a glass of Fire Whiskey to calm his nerves but it just made him jittery. He had even tried meditation but all that did was accentuate the restlessness of his inner beast which made him even more irritated.

 

He wanted his mate back now but he knew that if the plan they had come up with wasn’t followed to the T then something would go horribly wrong and he wouldn’t get Lucius back. After this he wasn’t going to let the man out of his sight, he sure as hell wasn’t going to let him leave the castle without him ever again.

 

He knew that Harry was holding something back in the letter he sent, he knew what kind of man Voldemort was so he could only imagine what the psychotic megalomaniac had done to Lucius. His imaginings were not of the good kind. The not knowing for sure is what hurt the most, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to cope with seeing his mate in any condition that wasn’t good and he was dreading seeing the man in the morning.

 

All he could do was sit and hope that he would get his mate back, hopefully not too damaged.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

He still wasn’t sure what day it was, nor was he sure how long he had been in his personal cell. All he knew was that it was noisy in Riddle Manor which meant that there was a meeting about to start. He knew that with a new meeting meant more pain and suffering and he was really hoping that he wouldn’t receive a visit from Bellatrix again, he still couldn’t feel the last two fingers on his left hand which was rather disconcerting.

 

He lay on the cold and damp hard ground listening to the activity going on in the dungeons, seems like there was a change of the guard again. He hoped that the previous one was returning, he seemed to genuinely be upset when he had to close his wounds and had even healed a few without being noticed. The young man still looked familiar but his fuzzy brain was unable to put a name to the face.

 

Lucius was attempting to swallow what little saliva was in his mouth when he felt the magic on his cell ripple. He knew something was about to happen and he really hoped it meant that he was going to be getting out of this hell hole soon.

 

Lucius heard a distinct pop in front of him and he opened his eyes to see what was going on only to come face to face with the house elf he had released four years previous. He looked a lot better dressed then he had when he was in the blonde’s service and it led the man to try and remember what had happened to the elf after he was no longer in the service of the Malfoy family.

 

 

“Master come with Dobby now, new master helps him get better.” With those words uttered the house elf grabbed hold of his right shoulder and apparated them out of the dungeon cell that had been his home for the last twenty hours.

 

 

They arrived in the Hogwarts hospital wing and the occupants when into a dizzy to try and get him up on the bed they had set up for him. Lucius hissed in pain as the injurie to his body were agitated upon him being moved. As soon as he was placed onto the bed, Madame Pomphrey started running scans on him to see what damage she had to work with.

 

Five minutes later the scan was complete and at the utterance of another spell a piece of parchment appeared in front of her with the details of his injuries.

 

 

“How bad is it?” Harry asked as he edged closer to the bed.

 

“He has two broken bones in his right leg, they will be easier to fix than his left one. That has two broken bones as well and his knee is severely dislocated. The last two fingers on his left hand are completely crushed, he has severe lacerations on his back and chest and his spleen is ruptured. The ear drum in his right ear is also damaged, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to heal it properly.” The medi-witch told him.

 

 

During the conversation between Harry and Madame Pomphrey, Remus had made his way to the bed and had started to stroke Lucius least bruised cheek. The blonde had slipped back into unconsciousness not long after being placed on the bed and was unaware of what was going on around him.

 

Draco was staring at his father, unsure of what to do. He had always seen his father as a strong and proud man but seeing him so broken and bloody had scared him so badly that he didn’t really know how to react to the state of the man in front of him. Blaise wrapped his arm around his boyfriend and led him to the seat next to the door, sitting down he then pulled Draco into his lap and wrapped his arms around his waist.

 

 

“I can start on his healing now but it is going to take a few hours, not all of the potions can be administered at once so it will be a slow process.” Madame Pomphrey said as she pulled the table with all the potion vials she would need over towards the bed.

 

 

The room was in silence over the next thirty minutes as Pomphrey administered what potions she could before she started with the healing spells to repair both the external and internal damage that had been done to her newest patient while he was a prisoner of Voldemort.

 

She had just finished healing the damage done to Lucius’ spleen when Severus came limping into the room. One look at him and she could clearly see the slice in his trouser leg and the blood stain on his leg.

 

 

“What happened to you?” She asked as she walked over to him and directed him to a seat.

 

“The Dark Lord was not happy when he discovered the cell to be empty. He started flinging curses into the crowed of Death Eaters and I wasn’t fast enough to dodge a cutting curse.” He informed her as she carefully rolled up the pant leg.

 

“You’re lucky it wasn’t any deeper.”

 

“I managed to stem the flow of blood but I wasn’t able to heal it before getting out of there. He’s in a rage over Lucius’ disappearance.” Severus said to the irate woman in front of him.

 

“Does he suspect you or your spy?” Harry asked.

 

“No, our plan worked perfectly. He has no idea how Lucius escaped but he has assigned me the task of questioning Dumbledore about his escape.” Severus told him.

 

“How is he?” He asked as he looked over at the prone form of his friend.

 

“He’ll be fine; I may not be able to heal his left leg completely but at least he’ll finally have a legitimate reason to carry around that bloody cane of his.” Pomphrey informed him as she handed him a vial of blood replenisher.

 

 

Looking over at his friend, Severus was glad to see that all the blood that had caked his face and hair was cleaned off and he sort of looked like himself. For the werewolf’s sake he hoped that there was no lasting or permanent brain damage, quite a few cruciatus curses had been thrown at the man.

 

 

“He hasn’t woken up since he was brought in. He passed out from the pain he suffered when we put him on the bed. Hopefully he’ll awaken soon and we can determine what damage was done to his mind.” The medi-witch said as she moved back over to her patient.

 

“Now it’s just a waiting game till he does wake up.”

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

When Lucius finally gained consciousness he discovered that he was laying on something soft and his body no longer ached. Fluttering his eyes open he looked for the source of the weight he felt on his right side only to see the sleeping face of his mate. A smile appeared on his face and he sighed in relief, looks like he was saved after all.

 

 

“You’re awake!” Lucius looked to his left where the shout came from to see his son standing next to the bed, a bright smile splitting his face.

 

 

The blonde’s enthusiastic shout woke everyone in the room and brought Madame Pomphrey in with a flurry of her robes. Remus jolted awake and stared at his awake mate, glad to see recognition in the blonde’s eyes as well as love.

 

 

“Ah, Lucius, can you remember what happened.”

 

“I really pissed off the snake faced bastard.” He said in a raspy voice, a grin on his face.

 

“That you did, he had you for a good twenty hours before this lot were able to get you out. You’ve been asleep for fourteen hours; we were starting to worry.” Pomphrey informed him as she filled a goblet with water.

 

“My leg hurts.” He said once he wet his dry mouth.

 

“I was unable to heal it properly, not only was your left knee dislocated but it was crushed. The damage was too extensive for me to heal completely, you will definitely have a limp and there will be lingering pain.” She informed him.

 

“We were so worried about you. I thought I’d never see you again.” Remus said as he tried to get as close as he could on the little hospital bed without hurting his mate.

 

“I’m sorry, I never saw it coming. I knew something was wrong but I was so concentrated on my destination that I didn’t see the portkey before it hit me in the chest.” He explained as he grabbed Remus’ hand and intertwined their fingers.

 

“We’re just glad that you’re okay.” Draco said as he hugged his father.

 

 

With the two most important people in his life on either side of him, Lucius went back to sleep with a smile on his face. Everything would be okay now, he was no longer in the clutches of Voldemort and his son and mate were with him. He may not have been in Voldemort’s clutches for long but the time he was there for had taken a toll on his body and he was beyond exhausted, he could finally sleep in peace.


	14. Christmas Miracles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Real life has a habit of getting hectic.

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

**Warnings:** Slash and AU after year 5. Violence, swearing, alcoholism.

**Pairings:** HP/SS, DM/BZ, LM/RL, FW/AJ, GW/OW

 

 

_Keep Calm_

_And_

_Get Your_

_HO HO HO On_

**Chapter Fourteen:** Christmas Miracles

 

 

The cold weather had settled in; snow had been falling at a steady rate for the last three days and all the remaining students had been confined to the castle. Warming charms were currently being used by the current occupants in the castle who were there for the Christmas holidays. Only three teachers were staying during the holidays, unfortunately that included Dumbledore, the other two were Snape and McGonagall.

 

Harry was the only Slytherin staying at Hogwarts so he had the whole common room to himself, it was rather disconcerting considering he was so used to the noise that permeated the air in the common room. Both of the youngest Weasley’s were there as well, most likely to spy on him during the holidays.

 

Lucius had healed up as well as he could, he was walking with a very pronounced limp that required constant use of a cane. His muscles still went through the occasional spasm due to the numerous cruciatus curses he was exposed to. These holidays would be a good opportunity for Draco and Remus to bond, Lucius was planning on going through with his proposal. Thankfully he was taken before he had a chance to get the rings out of his family vault, he had already talked with Draco about what he planned to do and his son was happy for him.

 

Charlie was coming from Romania to spend the holiday split between Hermione’s home and Bill’s. He had no intention of seeing any of the other members of his family, other than the twins.

 

Voldemort had been quiet since Lucius had escaped. Severus had informed them that Voldemort had gone a rampage after discovering Lucius’ cell empty. He had taken his rage out on several of the lower level Death Eaters who weren’t smart enough to stay out of the way. Only two Death Eater meetings had been called since October, Severus had only been called to the last one which had occurred just after Halloween.

 

Dumbledore had started calling meetings on a regular basis, he was still trying to regain control of Harry as well as trying to figure out what Voldemort was up to. He couldn’t send Severus to Riddle Manor because unless the man is called to a meeting he has no reason to be there.

 

Harry had tried several times to open the connection that he shared with Voldemort but he was unsuccessful every time. The evil wizard had found a way to keep Harry out of his head, that new ability would prove to be a problem.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

“Is red the only coloured ink you have?” Harry asked as he entered his head of houses office.

 

 

The stoic man was once again grading papers, from the looks of them they were the half yearly tests for the fifth and seventh year classes.

 

 

“Red seems to be appropriate considering the number of dunderheads in this school.” Severus replied.

 

“I just received the list from Bill, Dobby brought it by an hour ago. There are a few on their that will be of use to us.” Harry explained.

 

“You should write up the new spell list for the DA after the Christmas holidays, add some of those usable charms to the list.”

 

“I’ve already started on the list, just need to go through Bill’s list and add the ones that should be useful.” Harry told Severus.

 

“Dumbledore stopped me after breakfast this morning, was trying to make me stay in the Gryffindor tower because I’m the only one left in the Slytherin dungeon.”

 

“You’re a seventh year, he has no valid reason to make you stay in another house for the holidays.” Severus explained as he reached for another test from the pile to left of him.

 

“I know this, you know this and he knows it but he still thought I was dumb enough to fall for it.”

 

“Is the youngest Weasley still trying to drug you with love potions?” Severus asked the younger wizard.

 

“Yeah, every meal. Dobby makes sure that he is the one that sends the food up to my section of the table. She gets a different elf to do it at every meal so it’s hard to discern which one is going to do it.”

 

“I was going through my potions storage last night and discovered that several ingredients, needed to make the potion, have gone missing. After the fake Moody debacle in your fourth year I put a stronger locking charm on the storage room which allows only a teacher to gain access.”

 

“So Dumble’s is stealing potions ingredients. Why does that not surprise me?”

 

“He’s stepping up his game, he’s bound to slip up sooner or later.” Severus told him.

 

“That’s what I’m worried about. We need to find out what Voldemort is up to; he’s been quiet for too long and that never bodes well for anyone.”

 

“I’ll get in contact with the twins and organise for them to come here for the next lot of lessons once school starts up again. I just have this feeling that he’s planning something, it frustrates me that we don’t know what it is.” Harry said as he pulled out a sheet of parchment and his self-inking quill to pen a letter to the twins.

 

“He doesn’t trust anyone any more, Lucius was part of his inner circle. A group of his most trusted Death Eaters, the only ones he has any main contact with now are Bella and the Lestrange brothers. Even Wormtail is being left out of a lot of things. Lucius being found out has put a big kink in any of his plans that he had and because of that he has had to come up with new ones.” Severus explained.

 

“Remind me to buy Lucius a bottle of Fire whiskey, he deserves one after pissing Voldemort off so much.” Harry said.

 

“He’s not a big fan of Fire Whiskey, he’s more of a muggle gin drinker. Especially that Bombay Sapphire stuff, I don’t know how he can drink that swill.” Severus told him.

 

“Okay then, I’ll get him a bottle of gin. I’ll keep the Fire Whiskey for me.” Harry replied as he pulled hi pack of cigarettes out of his pocket.

 

“Light up in here and I’ll curse you three ways from Sunday.” Severus said, not even looking up from the test he was currently working on.

 

“Oh, come on. It’s not like I can smoke in the common room, the damn portraits report everything to the old coot.” Harry said with indignation.

 

“Then go outside.”

 

“Are you kidding me, I’ll freeze my nuts off before I get three feet from the front steps.” Harry said as he toyed with the cigarette he pulled out of the pack.

 

“Not my problem, you’re the one with the nasty muggle habit.” Severus replied, not a care in the world about Harry’s problem.

 

“Fine, I’ll go to Salazar’s quarters. At least I won’t get judgmental looks whilst I’m there.”

 

“That’s because they’re too busy with each other to pay attention to anyone else.” Severus called as Harry made his way out of the office door.

 

“Bite me!” Harry called before he closed the door.

 

“Don’t tempt me.” Severus mumbled as several images flashed through his mind.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

“The potion isn’t working; we need to go at this another way.” Dumbledore said to the two young Weasley’s sitting across from him.

 

“I heard Seamus talking about a party that the remaining seventh years have planned. They had already cleared it with their heads of houses before the holidays started.” Ron informed the headmaster.

 

“Good, good. Maybe we can use that to our advantage, where is the party supposed to be?”

 

“From what Seamus was telling Dean, the heads of house have given them permission to use one of the unused classrooms on the third floor. I’m not sure which one yet but I can find out.” Ron replied.

 

“Miss. Weasley, have you been able to gain any information from Miss. Granger?”

 

“No, she won’t talk to me. I did overhear her talking to Parvati before the holidays started, apparently, she has a boyfriend that doesn’t go here and he is visiting her and her family during the holidays.” Ginny informed Dumbledore.

 

“It’s probably that stuck-up ass Krum.” Ron mumbled, he was not happy at the news that Hermione had a boyfriend. He was still stupidly holding out that she would come back to him, no one ever said he was the brightest crayon in the box.

 

“Mr. Weasley, try and gain an invitation to the party that your year mates have organised. If that fails then try and find out where it will be held, maybe I’ll pay a visit.” Dumbledore ordered, Potter would be under his control again whether the boy liked that idea or not.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

“What are you doing?”

 

“Oh, come on. Don’t you start too, I already got kicked out of Severus’ office. You two are portraits, second hand smoke won’t kill you.” Harry groused as he took a drag of his cigarette.

 

“That still doesn’t explain what it is you are doing.” Salazar pointed out.

 

“Right, no cigarettes when you guys were around. It’s a muggle thing, you don’t want to know what’s inside them. I can’t smoke them in the Slytherin common room because of Dumbledore’s spying portraits, Severus wouldn’t let me smoke in his office and it is too bloody cold outside for me to smoke there so this was my next option.” Harry explained.

 

“When is this party of yours again?” Godric asked.

 

“Christmas Eve is in two days; Ronald has been trying to find out where it is being held. He thought he was being subtle but that boy couldn’t be subtle if his life depended on it.”

 

“Has the headmaster tried to stop the party?” Salazar asked Harry.

 

“He won’t try and stop it because it has the backing of the heads of house, so long as there is a teacher there to keep everyone in check and the party doesn’t go past curfew then he has no legitimate reason to try and stop the party.” Harry told them.

 

“I wouldn’t put it past the headmaster to turn up at the party and try to find some reason to stop it. He’ll most likely try and force us to invite the Weasel so that he can spy on us at the party.”

 

“Why don’t you just have the party here.” Salazar suggested.

 

“That might be a lot easier than trying to hide out in an old classroom that can be easily found. I’ll just let everyone know that the venue has changed and the Weasel will never be able to track us down.” Harry said as he stood up from the chair he was sitting in.

 

“I’ll see you guys later, thanks for the offer.”

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

Harry spent the next hour writing out letters to all the seventh-year students who were invited to the Christmas Eve party, he let them know that the location had been changed. He had also met up with Seamus to get him to keep on misdirecting Ron whenever the wizard asked about the party.

 

He had gotten in contact with Dobby to let the house elf know that the location had changed, while Harry was supplying the alcohol Dobby was catering the party with food prepared in the kitchen. With all the plans changed and everyone informed of that change, Harry settled in on one of the lounges in the common room to do some of his holiday homework.

 

As he worked through his Defence homework, Harry thought about what Voldemort could be planning. From what Remus and Severus had informed him of the last Order meeting, there were whispers that Voldemort may be planning an attack on Diagon Alley. Those whispers weren’t concrete because of Voldemort’s current silence but Harry wouldn’t put it past him.

 

With Voldemort keeping quiet on his plans and Harry not being able to get into the mad man’s mind to see what he was up to, finding out what was going to happen would be impossible until it happened. With those two options off the table Harry wasn’t sure what would help them be prepared for Voldemort’s next onslaught.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

Harry spent the day of Christmas Eve setting up the living room of Salazar’s quarters, preparing everything for the party that was to take place that night. Draco had come back that morning to help Harry set up, he had been given the job of procuring the alcohol for the night. With the party being pre-approved by the heads of house and the invited guests being all of age, they could have the alcohol without breaking any school rules.

 

Seamus had spent the better part of the day annoying the hell out of Ron by making him jump through hoops to gain access to the party. Once Ron had done Seamus’ bidding, Seamus gave him a false time and location to the party, the real party would have been going for an hour before the red head would show up to the room where the remaining Ravenclaw students were having a studying session.

 

 

“Hermione will be here in an hour with Charlie and the twins, Blaise is coming in half an hour and will be staying at the school for the rest of the holidays.” Draco told Harry as he transfigured another book into a bean bag.

 

“Why is he coming back?”

 

“Apparently, his mother and new step-dad are taking a last-minute holiday to France.” Draco explained.

 

“Wonder how long this marriage will last for?” Harry asked, the humour was obvious in his voice.

 

“I hope it does, Blaise seems to really like this one.” Draco replied.

 

“He does seem to be a pretty decent bloke.”

 

“How many step-fathers has your friend had?” Salazar asked.

 

“I think people started losing count after the first six.” Draco replied.

 

“That’s a bit much.”

 

“Yep, Blaise’s biological father died when he was about six and his mother has remarried quite a few times over the last eleven years.” Harry added.

 

“This new one makes the eighth.” Blaise said as he entered the room.

 

 

The three boys continued to talk to the two founders as they continued to set up the last of the decorations and food for the party. Blaise and Draco went off into Salazar’s office for a proper hello just before the guests started to show up.

 

After Hermione, Charlie and the twins turned up, Seamus followed with the Patil twins. By nine o’clock all the guests had arrived and Severus had turned up to keep an eye on things. Harry had already made his way through half a bottle of Fire Whiskey before the potions professor had turned up.

 

 

“You should have seen the look on his face when I told him where we were having the party. He thought he had finally worn me down enough that I’d invite him. He’ll get the surprise of his life when he walks into that room and finds it full of Ravenclaw’s instead of a party.” Seamus said, laughing as he regaled the story of how he frustrated the Gryffindor red head throughout the day.

 

“How are you going to explain it when he confronts you?” Dean asked.

 

“Haven’t thought of that part yet but it should be interesting.”

 

“Hey Charlie, what’s been going on with Norbert at the sanctuary?” Harry asked the older wizard.

 

“We’ve just paired him up with a mate so hopefully they’ll have a clutch of eggs soon.”

 

“Hagrid will be happy to hear that; he still talks about the dragon he wasn’t allowed to keep.” Harry said with a laugh, he loved Hagrid but the half giant tended to lean towards the dangerous side of animals.

 

“I should invite him to the sanctuary over the summer, he’d be in heaven. Several of the current clutches are due to hatch this summer.” Charlie mused, he’d always liked Hagrid’s taste in animals.

 

“I’ll let him know once school starts up, he’d really like that.” Harry told Charlie before he walked back over to the drinks table to poor himself another drink.

 

“Enjoying yourself?”

 

“Dumbledore isn’t around to hassle me, of course I’m having fun.” Harry replied to the potions master.

 

“I spent the better part of today avoiding the old coot, he kept trying to corner me to find out where the party was being held.”

 

“He’s really starting to grate on my last nerve, there has to be some way for me to get him to stop harassing me.” Harry said after he sculled his goblet of whiskey.

 

“Ease up on the alcohol, Potter. Don’t need you dying of alcohol poisoning before you can face the Dark Lord.” Severus told the young man, amusement clear in his voice.

 

“Please, it will take more than this to cause alcohol poisoning.” Harry replied.

 

“Hey Harry, come over here. We’re going to teach these purebloods how to play Pictionary, come and join us.” Dean called out.

 

“See you later, Sev.” Harry said before dashing off to the other side of the room, unaware of the pair of eyes staring at his ass in his tight fir jeans.

 

 

The noise level in the room grew exponentially over the next two hours as all the occupants, bar Severus, got into the noisiest marathon game of charades. Once the pureblood wizards got the hang of the game, several groups had formed to try out the remake of the game that Dean had made.

 

Dean’s goal after Hogwarts was to reinvent some of his favourite muggle games but basing them on magical events. He already had some plans laid out for the magical version of Monopoly and they were currently playing the remake of Pictionary that he had been working on since his fifth year. Seemed like it was a real hit with all the students present so far, it wasn’t that hard to change it around. It had taken a long time and a lot of trips to the library for research but it had finally panned out when he had made a working game.

 

Dean was planning on handing out forms to the Muggleborns and half-blood’s in the castle, seeing which games they would like to have remade into magical versions. He had been working in the muggle world during his summers and had saved up enough money to start producing more of the Pictionary games. All he needed to do was find an investor and convert his muggle money into wizarding money and he’d be set.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

Severus had somehow managed to find himself a dark corner to sit in so he could watch Harry without anyone seeing where his attention lay. He may have extinguished a few candles to create his little dark corner but that was neither here nor there.

 

With every finished drink, Severus could feel his inhibitions slowly trickle away. The more he watched Harry the more he was tempted to take the young man into Salazar’s office and have his way with him.

 

Draco’s words from weeks ago came to the forefront of his mind as he sat there drinking his whiskey. Perhaps it was time he made a move, it’s not like he was getting any younger and if he died in the war with the Dark Lord then he wanted to die knowing he at least had one night with the younger wizard.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

By one o’clock the next morning, Harry and Severus were the only two still awake. Harry had stopped drinking two hours previous when he noticed the not so subtle looks that Severus was throwing at him from across the room. Maybe Draco was right, the only way to find out was to gather the courage that originally put him in Gryffindor and make a move on the older wizard.

 

Before walking out of the room, harry looked over at Severus and tipped his head to get the man to follow him. Without looking back, he walked out of the room and made his way to Salazar’s old sleeping quarters.

 

Harry had used the room a couple of times since discovering the rooms, it was a great way to escape from the loyal Voldemort followers in Slytherin when they got a bit too overzealous. He made his way over to the bed and stood at the end facing it, he was brought out of his musing by the quiet click of the door closing.

 

Severus stood behind Harry and watched as the boy slowly turned around, the look on his face let him know everything he needed to and without a word he stepped forward and pulled Harry towards him. With a bit of hesitation Severus looked up into Harry’s eyes, seeing what he needed to he lent down and kissed him.

 

What started off as a tentative touch of their lips turned into something more heated when Harry opened his mouth to run his tongue along Severus’ bottom lip. Severus held Harry tighter and pulled him closer as the kiss continued.

 

When air became a requirement, the pair pulled apart and looked at each other. Harry had barely caught his breath before he was pulled towards Severus again for another kiss. Severus slowly walked Harry backwards until the younger man’s legs hit the mattress, gently pushing him down they moved further up the bed until Harry’s head was on the pillows.

 

 

“Please tell me this isn’t happening because of the alcohol?” Severus asked Harry as he pulled away from the boy’s lips.

 

“I stopped drinking two hours ago, this is definitely not because of the alcohol.” Harry assured the man, he could see the slight fear that the older wizard was trying to hide.

 

“Good. Just so you know, once we do this you are mine. There will be no one else.” Severus said, he was determined to keep the boy for however long Harry would have him.

 

“Yours.”

 

 

Once the word left Harry’s mouth, Severus swooped down and took his lips again. Harry spread his legs enough for Severus to slip between them comfortably and he started to gently rock against the wizard beneath him. Severus would not rush this; he had wanted Harry since the beginning of the school year and he was going to savour every moment.

 

Harry ran his hands up Severus’ back before bringing them around to the front where he began to undo the buttons on the man’s shirt before sliding it down his arms. Severus followed suit and pulled Harry’s t-shirt over the boy’s head, breaking from their kiss briefly before attaching his lips to Harry’s again.

 

The delicious friction caused by their chests rubbing together drew a low moan from Harry, he slowly scraped his blunt finger nails up Severus’ back and relished the moan it caused. If he had known that this was going to be the result, he would have approached Severus months ago.

 

Glad that he and Harry had both removed their shoes during the party, Severus set about undoing the belt on Harry’s jeans. The quicker they got naked the better.

 

Harry lifted his hips to help Severus pull his jeans down his legs where they were then kicked off onto the floor. Harry then moved his hands to the button and zipper of Severus’ slacks and proceeded to undo them.

 

Severus’ pants soon joined Harry’s on the floor and they were finally skin to skin. Moans left them both before their lips re-joined and Severus aligned his hips with Harry’s. Knowing that Harry was a virgin, Severus knew that Harry wouldn’t last long but that was fine with him, he had plenty of time to connect with Harry fully.

 

Their moans grew louder as the slick between them helped their movement and before long Harry started to feel the tell tail tingling in his stomach. Their hips started to move faster and Severus moved his left hand up to grip the back of Harry’s head as he tried to get closer to the man beneath him.

 

 

“Severus, I need to –.”

 

“Do it, come for me Harry.”

 

 

Three more thrusts later and the pair of them both reached their release, glad for the silencing charms on the room. Severus slumped over Harry as the pair of them regained their breath.

 

 

“That was worth the wait.” Harry puffed out once Severus moved to lay on his back next to him.

 

“That it was.”

 

“What are you thinking?” Harry asked as he rooted around next to the bed to find his wand.

 

“Was this a one-time thing, Harry?”

 

“I told you I was yours, Severus. I meant it, I don’t want anyone else.” Harry reassured him as he cast a quick cleaning spell.

 

“Good.” Severus murmured as he pulled Harry to his chest and held him tight, the night turned out better than he thought it would.


	15. First Strike!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew, another chapter. Looks like things are coming to a head soon, I'd say there will be at least another five chapters to go in this story. That's not a definitive number so don't hold me to it.
> 
> A big thanks to all those who have reviewed and put Kudos so far, you guys are awesome.

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

 **Warnings:** Slash and AU after year 5. Violence, swearing, alcoholism.

 **Pairings:** HP/SS, DM/BZ, LM/RL, FW/AJ, GW/OW

 

 

_War does not determine who is right. It determines who is left._

 

 

 **Chapter Fifteen:** First Strike!

 

 

Severus woke up the morning of Christmas Day with a warmth next to him he hadn’t felt before. Opening his eye’s, he looked to the left of him and saw Harry still asleep with his head half buried under the pillow. With a smile on his face, he rolled to his side and started to run his fingers up Harry’s back. Watching in satisfaction as goose bumps started sprouting up in the wake of his fingers.

 

Harry started to stir at the soft touch from the man next to him, pulling his head out from under the pillow he turned to give Severus a smile.

 

 

“Mm, morning.” Harry murmured as he stretched.

 

 

Severus watched as Harry arched his back, his eye’s travelled down to where the sheet had slipped to allow Severus full view of Harry’s backside. And what a sight it was, he could better appreciate his naked lover now that the alcohol of the previous night was no longer in his system.

 

 

“What time is it?” Harry asked.

 

 

Severus pulled out his wand and cast the tempus spell, the digital numbers formed in the air above their heads and they both balked at the time displayed.

 

 

“Merlin’s balls, it’s two o’clock in the afternoon. Why didn’t anyone wake us?” Harry asked as he sat bolt upright.

 

“I’m not sure, perhaps they are all still asleep as well. Everyone drank quite a bit last night.” Severus said as he sat up as well.

 

“Probably, most likely actually. Draco wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to burst in here and do the whole ‘I told you so’ thing.” Harry said, amusement colouring his voice.

 

“Give him time, he’ll be saying it to both of us.”

 

“He was bugging you too?”

 

“Yes, he was quite adamant that if I told you how I felt you would reciprocate. I told him to butt out, I thought I wouldn’t be able to have you.” Severus explained.

 

“Well now you do have me.” Harry told the older man as he leant over to place a chaste kiss on Severus’ lips.

 

 

Harry pushed the covers the rest of the way off his legs, he climbed from the bed and uncaring of his nakedness he turned around to face Severus, giving the older man a very good view in the process.

 

 

“I’m going to go and have a shower, want to join me?” Without waiting for the answer, Harry turned back around and headed into the ensuite.

 

 

Severus barely spared a thought to the question before jumping up from the bed and following his young lover with a spring in his step that hadn't been present since before he became one of the Dark Lord’s lackey’s. It was sure to be the most enjoyable shower he had ever had.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

“Oh man, my mouth tastes like cotton.” Draco mumbled as he began to slowly move around on the lounge where he had fallen asleep the night before.

 

“Shhhh, the Seven Dwarves are mining my brain.” Dean groaned as he tried to sit up.

 

“Please tell me Harry thought to put a stock of hangover potions somewhere in this room?” Hermione asked from her spot leaning against Charlie who was still past out on the beanbag they had laid claim to the night before.

 

“In the kitchen, cupboard above the sink.” Draco told her.

 

“Good, go and get them then.” Hermione told the blonde.

 

“Get stuffed, you go get them.” Draco said back.

 

“I can’t move, it feels like my head will fall off if I move too much.” Hermione said, her voice barely above a whisper.

 

“Wow, you guys really can’t hold your liquor.” Seamus said as he stood up from his little mattress that he had transfigured the night before. Stretching, he made his way through the maze of bodies on the floor before finally reaching the archway leading to the kitchen.

 

 

Five minutes later he came back with the vials of hangover potion and started to hand them out to those who were awake before putting the remainder on the table. After drinking down the vials of potion, those who were awake already, were finally starting to feel human again.

 

 

“Where is Harry?” Hermione asked as her eyes swept the room in search of her friend.

 

“I don’t know, he was here last night.” Blaise said as he downed his own hangover potion.

 

“He’s probably sleeping in Salazar’s bedroom. I’ll go and check.” Draco said as he stood up and walked over to the door leading to the bedroom. He was back within thirty seconds with a shit eating grin on his face.

 

“From the sounds I heard coming from the bathroom and the clothing on the floor in the bedroom, it looks like Harry and Severus finally took the plunge.” Draco explained to the curious onlookers.

 

“About bloody time, they’ve been throwing secretive looks at each others backs since school started. I was tempted to lock them in a room and not let them out until they finally admitted their feelings.” Hermione said, she was glad that Harry had finally done something about his feelings for the potions master.

 

“Now they’ll be looking at each other like a pair of love sick puppies.” Draco said, a look of distaste on his face.

 

“Oh please, you can’t talk. After you and Blaise got together the pair of you pretty much had your lips glued together. My gag reflex was on constant alert whenever you two walked into a room.” Pansy told the blonde from her sprawled position on the floor.

 

“Bite me, Pansy.” Draco spat back at the girl.

 

“Children, would you like me to call your parents?” Severus asked as he walked out of the bedroom, a very satisfied look on his face.

 

“Ha, I so told you so!” Draco explained as he pointed at his godfather.

 

“Eloquent as ever, Draco.” Severus drawled as he made his way to the kitchen for a coffee fix.

 

“What’s up, guy’s?” Harry asked as he walked out of the bedroom, his jeans hanging from his waste and his t-shirt in his left hand.

 

“Nice love bites Harry.” Hermione said.

 

“Shit, Severus I said don’t leave any marks.” Harry called out as he looked down at his chest that was starting to show several love bites.

 

“You said don’t leave any visible marks, those are on your chest where only I can see them. It’s not my fault you didn’t put your shirt on in the bedroom.” Severus called out from the kitchen.

 

 

Severus’ reply was met with sniggers and giggles from the awake party members. Hermione was laughing so much she lost her balance and fell onto Charlie, promptly waking him up.

 

 

“What’s goin’ on?”

 

“Just laughing at Harry, seems he and Severus finally took the plunge.” Hermione told her boyfriend after getting him one of the vials from the table.

 

“Thanks, what time is it?” Charlie asked.

 

“It’s almost three.” Harry told the dragon tamer.

 

“Okay, we need to be at Bill’s at five.” Charlie told Hermione as he stood up.

 

“I’ll find our stuff; we’ll need to head back to my parent’s house so I can get changed.” Hermione replied as she got up to search for their jackets and gloves that they had worn the previous night.

 

 

Over the next hour, the number of people in Salazar’s room slowly dwindled until Harry and Severus were the only ones left. The house elves had been in and cleaned the mess left over from the party and Severus had received a message from the headmaster reminding him that his presence at the Christmas dinner that night was compulsory.

 

 

“How long do we have before we need to be at dinner?” Harry asked Severus.

 

“An hour, why?” Severus replied.

 

“I was thinking that we could use that time to get to know each other a little better.” Harry said suggestively as he wrapped his arms around Severus’ neck.

 

“Hmm, that’s sounds like an excellent plan.” Severus replied before leaning down to kiss Harry.

 

“Well then, let’s get started.” Harry said as he started to walk backwards, pulling Severus along as he headed for the door to the bedroom.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

“How was the party?” Lucius asked his son as Draco and Blaise entered the library at Potter Manor.

 

“It was fun, Harry and uncle Sev finally got their act together and admitted their feelings for each other.” Draco informed his father as he sat on the lounge under the window.

 

“It’s about time.” Remus added as he walked into the room.

 

“I know, right? I talked to them both separately and true to their identical stubborn natures, they both proved that stubbornness when they refused to talk to each other. I guess things finally came to a head last night and they decided to just go for it.” Draco told the older wizards.

 

“Well, the sexual tension should be down to a minimum now.” Blaise added.

 

“Did Severus say anything about the last Death Eater meeting?” Lucius asked his son, it was hard not being in the loop but being free was better than still being in the service of that half-blood nut bag.

 

“He’s still not letting anyone in on his plans, from what uncle Sev was able to gather, Pettigrew and Bellatrix are his only confidants and you know as well as I do that neither of those two are dumb enough to betray him.” Draco told them.

 

“Harry has a feeling that Voldemort will attack by the new year, he still can’t get into Voldemort’s mind but he says that the feeling is too persistent for him to ignore.” Blaise informed the two adults.

 

“What’s the old coot planning?” Draco asked Remus.

 

“He believes that Voldemort is going to attack the Ministry, he’s got Kingsley preparing the Auror’s for an attack.” Remus replied.

 

“Where do you think the attack will happen?” Draco asked his father.

 

“If he plans to attack on the new year then the Ministry will not be his destination, he’ll want as many casualties as he can get and the Ministry will be practically empty. The best bet will be either Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade.” Lucius told them.

 

“Yeah, that sounds about right. Dumbledore will be so concentrated on the Ministry that he won’t have anyone within reach of those other two locations. Harry should put the DA on high alert just in case.” Remus said, he would try and bring up Diagon and Hogsmeade as being possible places of attack but he wasn’t sure that Dumbledore would listen.

 

“He let all the seventh-year members know last night, he’s planning on sending out letters to the other members soon.” Blaise told him.

 

“Good, I’ll let the order members, on Harry’s side, know what is going on.” Remus told them before he rose from his seat, he walked over to Lucius and lent down to give him a quick kiss before leaving the library to write the letters he would need to send off.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

December twenty-eight found all the available members of the DA in the Chamber of Secrets getting in some extra training to help prepare them for Voldemort’s inevitable attack. Harry had sent out letters to all the members that would be able to help with the attack, all up there were just over half the members available.

 

Several Order members had also joined in on the planning, lending their skills to better the training of the students. Tonks was helping them with some of the stealth spells that were taught to the Auror’s during their training. Bill was teaching the seventh-year members how to cast anti-apparition wards to prevent the Death Eaters from leaving once they attack.

 

The had set up two plans, one for each of the locations that they were sure Voldemort would attack. The layout of the two locations were completely different so they would require different strategies, Remus had picked some of the best strategists in the DA to help put them together.

 

Lucius had spent an hour filling everyone in on the members of Voldemort’s inner circle. Their names, strengths, weaknesses and their most used spells. The one he informed them that they all should keep an extra eye on was Bellatrix, she would stop at nothing to kill as many witches and wizards as she can during the attack.

 

Harry still wasn’t sure if Voldemort would even turn up at the attack, he just had a feeling that something was going to happen and it was going to happen soon. If the Order of Flaming Chickens weren’t going to pull their weight then the battle would be fought by a bunch of school kids, now that would be embarrassing when it came out to the public but it would put a rather big mark against Dumbledore’s name.

 

Now that the plans were set and everyone was ready for when Voldemort attacked, Harry felt confident that they were prepared for everything that could happen over the next few days.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

“You need to stop worrying, Harry. We are as prepared as we can be.” Severus told the young man who was currently pacing in front of the fireplace in his personal quarters.

 

“What if he calls you? I just have this feeling that if you go to another meeting with him you won’t come back.”

 

“Harry, he doesn’t know that I’m a spy. He’s being cautious with who he tells what, it’s not just me he is keeping things from.” Severus tried to reassure his young lover.

 

“Just promise that you’ll be careful when he calls you next?” Harry asked as he wrapped his arms around Severus’ neck and hugged him.

 

“I always carry an emergency portkey just in case he does discover my true allegiance.” Severus informed the younger man.

 

“This next attack won’t be the last, I highly doubt he’ll turn up at the attack.” Harry added.

 

“How about we stop talking about all this and get to the fun part.” Severus said.

 

“Hmm, like what?” Harry asked, as smile started to form on his lips as he pushed thoughts of the upcoming battle to the back of his mind.

 

 

Instead of answering verbally, Severus decided to go the physical route. He lent down the short distance and attached his lips to Harry’s, sliding his hands down the back of the slightly shorter man, he gripped Harry by the backside pulled up urging Harry to jump. With Harry’s legs wrapped around his waist, Severus proceeded to carry him to his sleeping quarters.

 

Not willing to part from Harry long enough to remove their clothing, Severus used wandless magic to remove their clothes for them. Once completely naked, Severus knelt on the bed and gently lay Harry down before he aligned their groins.

 

They had come to an agreement that no penetration would occur while Harry was still as student, Harry was ready for that yet and Severus wanted him to be very willing when the time came.

 

Severus finally drew back from Harry’s lips when air became an issue for the them both. The sight of Harry laying beneath him, chest heaving and sweat starting to glisten on his brow, turned Severus on in a way that no one had ever done before. Over the years he had taken the occasional lover but none of them had ever made him feel the way that Harry did.

 

Trailing kisses along Harry’s cheek, Severus made his way to Harry’s left ear and started to suck on the skin below it, eliciting a groan from him. Severus then trailed his lips down to Harry’s chest where he paid attention to both nipples for several minutes until Harry begged him to do something to release the pleasure.

 

 

“What do you want me to do, Harry?”

 

“Anything, please. I need you.” Came the breathy response, Harry was harder than he had ever been before and Severus was driving him crazy.

 

“Is this what you want?” Followed by a nip on Harry’s left nipple.

 

“Or this?” Harry was asked as Severus dipped his tongue into Harry’s navel, sending a jolt up the younger man’s spine.

 

“Or is it this that you want?” Severus asked as he moved further down Harry’s body to start sucking on his inner thigh, just below the spot Harry wanted him to be.

 

“Please.”

 

 

No longer able to tease Harry, Severus finally paid attention to the younger man’s penis. It was standing erect in a bed of dark curls, leaking copious amounts of precum. It was a most delicious sight and Severus just had to taste it. Leaning down he slowly sucked the tip into his mouth bringing forth a deep moan from Harry that sent a jolt straight through Severus’ own cock.

 

Placing his left arm over Harry’s waist so he wouldn’t buck too hard, Severus then proceeded to suck Harry all the way in before swallowing. Harry moaned loudly and, on reflex, bucked up from the bed.

 

With Harry being young and sensitive, he didn’t last long and before he knew it, he was warning Severus but the man just kept on sucking and when Harry came, Severus swallowed every drop. Once Harry had calmed down, Severus moved up the bed and lay next to the younger wizard and pulled him into his side.

 

 

“Mm, I think my brain has turned to jelly.” Harry mumbled.

 

“How is that any different from any other time of day?” Severus asked, a smirk firmly in place.

 

“Ha, ha. You’re a real barrel of laughs.” Harry said as he lightly smacked Severus on the chest.

 

“Rest Harry, things are going to come to a head in the next couple of days and we need to have all the rest we can get.” Severus told Harry as he held him closer, things were going to get dangerous in the next few days.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

Four senior members of the DA were stationed in the two places that Voldemort was likely to attack. Two were stationed in Hogsmeade, they had set up a little outpost in the cave that Sirius had utilised during Harry’s fourth year. They had set up sensor wards at each end of the village as well as the dead centre of town, if anyone apparated into the town then they would know about it.

 

Harry didn’t want Voldemort to know that they knew he was coming so they had made sure that the residents didn’t know about what was going on. The Death Eaters would be suspicious if they turned up to attack only to find no one there to attack.

 

The other two DA members were stationed in The Weasley twins store in Diagon Alley, their set up was like Hogsmeade’s but with a few differences. Other than apparition or portkey, there was only one other way into the alley and that was through the archway behind the Leaky Cauldron. Knockturn Alley had its own apparition point but it was too dangerous for any member of the DA to go in there to cast the charm that would be needed. Instead they just placed monitoring charms at the Alley’s entrance to let them know when anyone came out.

 

Severus didn’t believe that they would attack from Knockturn Alley, the Death Eaters would opt for a quick and devastating attack by apparating directly into the middle of the alley. If people saw them coming then they would run, where as if they just appear there would be more chaos and more people to curse.

 

The attack was most likely to take place during the day so the DA were on high alert once December thirty first came around. By the time lunch started at Hogwarts, Severus had already been called and Harry just knew that he would be made to fight in the attack. There was no safe way for Severus to inform Harry of Voldemort’s intended target so Harry kept the DA coin grasped firmly in his hand, impatiently waiting for the call from one of the two teams.

 

Dumbledore had already left after breakfast that morning and from what Remus could tell Harry, Dumbledore had called all the members of the Order to have them ready to descend upon the Ministry once Voldemort attacked.

 

 

As Harry stood up from the table at the end of lunch, he felt the coin in his hand heat up and buzz three times. That was the signal for an attack on Diagon Alley.

 

The DA members that were all at Hogwarts over the holidays all looked to Harry before they all got up from their seats and followed Harry out of the Great Hall. They would need to get off the school grounds as quickly as possible, so once they got out the front door they sprinted across the grounds.

 

They apparated to the Weasley twins shop, the only place that allowed apparition once the wards were activated. The sounds of screams and explosions greeted them when they arrived and Harry rushed from the store into total chaos.

 

Colours from the various spells flying around lit up the dark alley, witches and wizards were running all over the place and Harry could already see several bodies lying on the ground. Glass from several shop windows littered the cobblestone street and the distinct smell of burning wood permeated the air.

 

In the ensuing chaos, Harry could spot Hermione and Charlie in front of Quality Quidditch Supplies, they were ushering a group of children into the store to keep them safe. Harry was glad to see that they both looked relatively unharmed, now he just needed to track down the other members of the DA and hopefully find Severus.

 

 

As Harry walked down the Alley he stunned and bound as many of the Death Eaters as he could, from the skill level of the ones he came across Harry highly doubted that they were any of the inner circle. Harry may have gotten the attack right but the attendees weren’t who he thought they would be. He still needed to be careful though, they may be the lower echelons of Voldemort’s ranks but they were still formidable.

 

The further Harry travelled down the alley the colder it got, he had a feeling that Voldemort had sent the Dementor’s to create even more devastation. Harry cast his Patronus spell and watched as the stag burst from his wand and stormed down the alley, knocking Dementor’s out of the way as it made its way through the crowd.

 

Twenty minutes after Harry arrived in Diagon Alley, the Auror’s turned up and helped the DA members to either capture or drive off the remaining Death Eaters. The casualties were not as high as Harry had thought, thankfully, there were mostly Death Eaters that were the casualties.

 

 

“Looks like Voldemort was cleansing his ranks, none of these guys were worth a full-scale attack.” Harry said as he joined the small group of his friends outside of Madam Malkin’s.

 

“They did seem to be using minor spells.” Dean said as he joined the group.

 

“The Dementor’s caused the most damage.” Charlie told them, he had spent the last ten minutes talking to several Auror’s that had turned up for the clean-up.

 

“What I’d like to know is why Voldemort planned this attack, it doesn’t make any sense.” Harry added to the conversation.

 

“It’s a precursor to the main event.” The group turned around at the voice to see Severus walking towards them.

 

“Voldemort’s main attack?” Harry asked the older man.

 

“He hasn’t told anyone when it is yet, nor has he told them where. While this attack was going on he sent several members of the inner circle into the muggle world. They attacked a town that is mostly populated by muggle families but there are a few wizarding ones residing there as well.” Severus explained.

 

“How many casualties?” Harry asked, part of him didn’t want to know the answer.

 

“Four muggles and three wizards were killed in the attack, the Obliviator’s have been sent to sort out the rest of the muggles and the muggle Prime Minister has been informed of the attack as well as the possibility of more over the coming months.”

 

“We need to step up the DA lesson’s, I think it’s time that we schedule more lessons a week and get the twins back in with their new products. The full moon is coming in three days so the likely hood of Voldemort letting Greyback run wild is high. Before the holidays started, Remus said something about Dumbledore wanting him to go to a pack of Werewolves currently living in Galloway Forest.” Harry told the group.

 

“Yeah, dad isn’t happy about the mission that was given to Remus but Remus is determined to get at least one pack on our side.” Draco informed the group.

 

“It would help in the long run, as it is we barely have any giants on our side let alone any other creature. The Centaur’s will attack anyone who encroaches on their territory but they won’t outright help us. The Dementor’s are all on Voldemort’s side as well as many Werewolves and Vampire’s. I’ll be brewing several potions over the next few months to help with the final battle, I’ve even been working on a new one that may just have potential.” Severus added.

 

“What’s the potion?” Hermione asked, new knowledge always fascinated her.

 

“With the Vampires on Voldemort’s side in this war the potential for victims will be high. Like Werewolves, Vampires create new ones with their bite. The potion I have been working on, when drunk by the potential victim, will render the Vampire venom inert.”

 

“That sounds like it has great potential.” Hermione said.

 

“I will need to test it in the next couple of months but for that to be possible I will need fresh blood from a vampire. The potion should work on the blood of a vampire as it also has the venom in it, if this potion can render vampire venom useless then it will become a very useful potion for the Auror department.” Severus explained further.

 

 

Harry was about to ask his lover a question when he noticed Dumbledore walking up to their small group, the old man did not look impressed to see Harry and his friends there. He was even less impressed with Severus’ interactions with the teens as well.

 

 

“Ah, Harry. What are you doing here?”

 

“Helping out, something you should have been doing from the start.”

 

“I had the Order stationed at the Ministry, there was no indication that Voldemort was going to attack Diagon Alley.” Dumbledore explained to the younger wizard.

 

“There was no indication that he was going to attack the ministry but you still went there. It’s New Year’s Eve, Professor, the Ministry was practically empty except for the security detail and a few Auror’s working over the holidays. What made you think that Voldemort would attack a place that would have no one worth killing?” Harry asked.

 

“Diagon Alley provided a smorgasbord of potential victims, everyone who was here was doing shopping for the festivities tonight. Voldemort took that opportunity and attacked.” Draco added.

 

“While you were off gallivanting around the Ministry of Magic, children fought off trained Death Eaters and Dementor’s. When the Daily Prophet gets wind of that, you’ll have reporters banging on the doors of Hogwarts demanding answers. Several Order members tried to tell you of the two more likely places of attack but as usual you didn’t listen and innocent lives were lost.” Harry told the old coot.

 

“I’m going back to Hogwarts. Draco, let me know what Remus decides? Hermione, I’ll see you when school starts back up.” Without a backwards look at the group he was leaving behind, Harry made his way back to the Weasley’s shop to apparate back to Hogwarts. If he had to be around Dumbledore for another minute, he was liable to deck the old codger.

 

 

If this was just an attack to weed out the weak before the main attack, then they needed to step up their game. Voldemort will stop at nothing until Harry is no longer an obstacle in his quest to conquer the wizarding world and he sure as hell won’t care about who gets killed in the process.

 

This war was about to heat up and the body count was only going to keep rising, the sooner the war ended the better.


	16. Time for a Change

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay in this chapter. Recently had a death in the family that hit everyone really hard, it came out of nowhere so it was really hard to deal with. It's scary how quickly cancer can take over the body and destroy it. The hardest part was trying to explain it to my six year old who is now worried someone else will die.
> 
> If this chapter isn't up to par, I'm sorry. catching up on my stories is helping me to deal so I will start updating more often now. I'm even working on a whole new story that I won't start posting till this one is finished. After this chapter there will be three more and an epilogue chapter.

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
**Warnings:** Slash and AU after year 5. Violence, swearing.  
**Pairings:** HP/SS, DM/BZ, LM/RL, FW/AJ, GW/OW

 

 

_With lies, you may go forward in the world but you may never go back._

**Chapter Sixteen:** Time for a Change

 

 

Two hours after the attack on Diagon Alley, the Daily Prophet had already written and dispatched the late edition to the public. It did not paint Dumbledore in a nice picture even fudge had copped flack for not having Auror stationed at Diagon Alley like he had promised at the start of summer.

 

Fudge was currently in Dumbledore’s office ranting and raving at the elder wizard about the attack on Diagon Alley. As usual he was only looking out for himself and wanted to make sure that his arse was covered when it came to what went on.

 

 

“I told you already, Cornelius, my information was not as helpful since my main spy was found out by Voldemort. I had to go by rumours that were spreading amongst the Death Eaters. Our information was wrong.” Dumbledore tried to placate the irate wizard.

 

“Then why was Harry Potter and a group of students fighting in Diagon Alley?” Fudge asked.

 

“I’m not sure what they were doing there. I’ve lost control of the boy, I’ve even lost the loyalty of some of my Order members.” Dumbledore explained.

 

“You need to get control of that boy, no matter what it takes. I will not have him making me look bad and upsetting my chances for re-election.” Fudge told the headmaster.

 

 

Unbeknownst to the two wizards, Godric was hiding in one of the headmaster portraits on the wall. He had snuck into the portrait as soon as word had gotten to him that the Minister for Magic was having a secret meeting with the Headmaster late at night. He had informed his young heir of the meeting and had volunteered to listen in on the ensuing conversation.

 

 

“It’s harder than you think, Cornelius. I’ve had Miss. Weasley trying to put a love potion into his morning juice but he has somehow managed to avoid it. I can’t do anything directly, my position as Headmaster prevents me from doing anything.”

 

“I thought that you were the boy’s magical guardian.”

 

“I was, until this summer and the reading of his parent’s will. He was magically emancipated over the summer and I lost all control of him. I’ve been trying to regain my control of him since school started back but he is proving to be difficult.” Dumbledore explained.

 

“Well, maybe we should take more drastic measures to gain control of the boy. Have Snape brew a compulsion potion, cast the imperio on him, I don’t care what you do just regain your control of him.” Fudge ranted as he paced in the front of Dumbledore’s desk.

 

 

While the two men continued to plot, Godric remained unnoticed in the frame he was hiding in. He needed to know what their final plan would be so he could go and warn his heir.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHP**

“I guess Skeeter has come in handy since Hermione threatened her.” Harry said as he finished reading the Daily Prophet article that had been done on the attack in Diagon Alley.

 

 

The unlikable reporter had gone all out in her article, she did not paint Dumbledore or Fudge in a kind light. She had addressed the issue of why Hogwarts students had been the ones to fight in the battle as well as why there were no adults present to help combat the Death Eaters. The public outcry was insurmountable, many witches were demanding Fudge to explain where the Auror’s were.

 

 

“How long do you think it will be before Fudge tries to cover his ass?” Pansy asked as she passed the paper to Blaise.

 

“He’s probably got his speech all planned out.” Draco added.

 

“Has your dad’s contacts gotten back to him yet?” Harry asked the blonde.

 

“No, not yet. Security has been heightened at the Ministry after the attack in Diagon Alley, all owls coming from the Ministry are being screened.” Draco informed him.

 

“I sent a letter off to the twins last night, they replied with an affirmative. They’ll be here tonight to show us what they have come up with for the DA.” Harry said, changing the subject.

 

“What have they come up with now?” Pansy asked.

 

“I don’t know, they said it was a surprise. We’ll find out tonight though.”

 

“I’m hungry, what’s for lunch?” Blaise asked.

 

“When aren’t you hungry?” Harry asked as they made their way out of the library and towards the dining room where lunch would be served.

 

“I’m a growing boy.”

 

“I can attest to that.” Draco added with a leering look aimed at his boyfriend.

 

“That’s more information than I wanted.” Harry told them.

 

“I could stand to hear a little more.” Pansy added.

 

“That’s because you’re a closet voyeur.” Blaise pointed out.

 

“Who’s a voyeur?” Remus asked, catching the end of their conversation as the four teens entered the dining room.

 

“Pansy.” Harry told him as he sat at the table.

 

“Do I want to know?” Remus asked.

 

“You really don’t” Harry replied.

 

“Noted.”

 

“What happened at today’s meeting?” Harry asked Remus, after the events that unfolded in Diagon Alley, Dumbledore had called an emergency meeting.

 

“Albus is not happy with you. He’s still ranting on about how he has lost control of you and he needs to regain it. It didn’t help matters that all the members who tried telling him of the futility of protecting the Ministry, were doing the whole ‘I told you so’ spiel.” Remus explained.

 

“Is he still sending you to meet with the werewolf packs?” Draco asked.

 

“Yes, he’s determined to get them on our side.”

 

“Things might go smoother if you had something to offer them.” Draco added.

 

“That’s exactly what your father suggested. I talked to Severus and he’s going to give me two month’s supply of the Wolfsbane potion, there will be enough to treat ten werewolves.” Remus told them.

 

“That should make things a little easier.” Blaise said.

 

“Not by much though. They have been made outcasts by the wizarding world, they’ve been made to feel unwanted and despised. I highly doubt they will want to help us.” Remus explained to them.

 

“Then it seems like the Ministry needs to change a few things. I need to talk to Lucius, when will he be back Remus?”

 

“In the next hour or so.”

 

“What do you have in mind?” Draco asked.

 

“I’m thinking we need a new Minister. Look how long it took for Fudge to pull his finger out and do something when Voldemort came back. He’s been so busy trying to save his job that he has ignored everything else.” Harry began.

 

“Who do you have in mind to replace the idiot?” Blaise asked.

 

“Lucius.” Came the succinct reply.

 

“He’d be a perfect candidate, his knowledge of all the laws and regulations for the wizarding world are better than Fudge’s. It also helps that he is mated to a werewolf and understands them better than any other Ministry official.” Pansy spoke.

 

“We’ll ask him when he gets back, he’ll know what to do to take over the position. It also helps that the public has lost all faith in him and has been calling for a re-election since Voldemort’s return. We’ll need to come up with a campaign that we can run once school starts back.” Harry added.

 

“What’s this about a campaign?” Lucius asked as he walked into the dining room.

 

“A campaign for you.” Draco told him.

 

“What for?”

 

“Harry wants you to run for the Minister of Magic position.” Remus informed his lover.

 

“Are you serious? You want me to be the Minister?” Lucius asked as he took a seat.

 

“Can you think of anyone better? You know the ins and outs of the Ministry better than anyone, especially the current administration.” Harry told him.

 

“The only way for a new Minister to take office during the current one’s run is to get the Wizengamot to put forth a vote of no confidence. The public will need to be made aware of the proceedings but with their current outcry at Fudge it should go over easily.” Lucius explained to them.

 

“When can we start?” Draco asked.

 

“I will send a request for a Wizengamot meeting to Madame Bones. If we can keep things hush until the day of the meeting, then Fudge and Dumbledore won’t be able to counter the action against Fudge.”

 

“You’ll most likely need to provide proof that you were a spy for the Order.” Harry told the elder blonde.

 

“I’ll get some Pensieve memory vials tomorrow. I’ll write and send off the letter to Amelia once we are finished lunch.” Lucius told them as he poured himself a drink.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

“Ah, Severus. Thank you for coming this early.” Severus was greeted by Dumbledore’s overly cheerful personality, something he didn’t want to be greeted with first thing in the morning during the holidays.

 

“What was so important that you needed to call me here at six o’clock on a Sunday?” Severus asked as he took a seat.

 

“Would you like some tea or a lemon drop?”

 

“No Albus, what I would like is to know what you want.” Severus replied.

 

“Straight to the point I see. Right, I have a list of potions I would like you to make. No questions asked.” Dumbledore said as he handed over a piece of parchment.

 

“You want me to make compulsion potions?” Severus asked incredulously.

 

“I said no questions Severus, the less you know the better. Things have gotten too far out of my control and they need to be reigned in.” Dumbledore told him.

 

“Right, I’ll get right on them then.” Severus said, his voice void of emotion as he rose from his seat and exited the office without so much as a backwards glance at the wizard sitting at the desk.

 

 

The students that were left in the school over the holidays pressed themselves to the walls as Severus went storming past. With his cloak billowing behind him in the usual way, he stormed through the school and down into the dungeons.

 

Upon entering his rooms, Severus walked over to his desk and sat down, pulling a piece of parchment towards himself he picked up his quill and started to write a letter to Harry. He’d be damned if he let Dumbledore control his young lover.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHP**

The Rest of the holidays flew by. Remus went off on is mission for the Order, a bag filled with medical and nutritional potions along with the Wolfsbane potion. Lucius had been upset with the departure of his fiancé and so he decided to concentrate on the upcoming Wizengamot meeting.

 

Charlie went back to Romania with the promise of his return when Harry needed him, he had lost favour with his parents as well as his youngest brother and sister when he told them that he supported Harry with everything he was doing and that he believed that they should leave him be.

 

The twins had worked tirelessly on their new products that they were creating for the upcoming war. They had several working potions and a couple of physical objects that the DA members could carry on their person to help them out.

 

Severus had informed Harry of the potions that Dumbledore had requested he make, they were hoping that Lucius’ petition to the Wizengamot would go through soon. Once Fudge was out of the way then they could concentrate on getting Dumbledore away from the school. Parents would not want him in charge of their children when they find out what he has in store for their saviour.

 

Harry had come up with a good way to get back at Ginny for her continuing attempts to get him to ingest the love potion she kept trying to give him. With Draco’s help, they had come up with the perfect revenge.

 

Harry already spoken to Dobby, the house elf would put the plan into action at breakfast on the first school day back after the holidays. All Harry needed to do was try and steer clear of Dumbledore until their plans were in motion.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHP**

“What’s the bet that Dumbledore calls you to his office straight after dinner?” Draco asked as their little group climbed up onto one of the carriages.

 

“Unless he can give me a legitimate reason, pertaining to school, then I’ll tell him to shove his request.”

 

“Well, dad filled you in on the rules and regulations at Hogwarts. The headmaster can only request your presence in his office if he has received complaints about your performance in class, all other academic matters are attended by your head of house.” Draco reminded him.

 

“Yeah but this is Dumbledore we’re talking about, he thinks everyone should do as he says and not question him about it.” Blaise added.

 

“We’ll see when we get there. Severus has been delaying the brewing of the potions that Dumbledore has requested he make. He can only delay for so long before Dumbledore becomes suspicious and starts making things difficult for the man.” Harry told them.

 

“How has he managed to delay it?” Pansy asked.

 

“Madame Pomphrey has asked him to restock her potions stalls, to replenish what was used in the first half of the year. He can only do so many potions at once and seeing as the potions for the hospital wing take precedence over any the headmaster requests, then Severus has the right to make him wait. Severus has brought us another two weeks, at least.” Harry explained.

 

“Not to forget that he also has to brew Remus’ next batch of Wolfsbane.” Draco added.

 

“School starts tomorrow and things are going to get interesting. Dobby will switch the juice cups around before the food is sent up to the Great Hall tomorrow morning. He’ll do it at eight when there will be more students present, the more people who see her humiliation, the better.” Harry told them as the carriage carried them through the gates at the start of the path that led up towards the school.

 

“Tomorrow is going to be fun.” Blaise said as he bounced in his seat caused by the pending excitement.

 

 

The group of Slytherin’s spent the rest of the ride to the castle idly chatting about their next term of school work. With it being their last year at Hogwarts, the classwork would start to get harder as they worked their way up to the N.E.W.T exams at the end of the year.

 

From what Harry could gather from Charlie, Hermione had spent a great part of her holiday making a study schedule to better help her for her exams. Outside of DA meetings, Harry highly doubted that he would see the girl.

 

 

“I’d like to welcome everyone back from their Christmas holidays, classes commence tomorrow and I would like to remind all returning students of the item band list that Mr Filch has posted up outside his office. With that being said, dig in.”

 

“Don’t you just love how he mentions the little things that don’t matter but completely ignores the important?” Blaise asked as he started to pile his plate with food.

 

“It’s Dumbledore, did you expect anything else?” Draco asked his boyfriend.

 

“He keeps staring at you, Harry. It’s kind of creepy.” Pansy said.

 

 

Harry put down his knife and fork and turned his head to look at the Headmaster. Without blinking, Harry stared at the old coot until the man finally looked away. As Harry looked along the teachers table, he saw Severus trying not to laugh. When his eyes raked over Remus’ usual seat, he realised something he hadn’t thought of before.

 

 

“I think I had a brain fart at some point over the last week, if Remus is off trying to recruit the help of werewolves, who is going to teach Defence?” Harry asked as he turned back to the others.

 

“Crap, I didn’t think of that either.” Draco replied.

 

“Didn’t he say something about an Order member taking over the job while he’s away?” Blaise asked.

 

“When did he say that?” Draco asked.

 

“I think it was in the library, he may have been talking to your dad.” Blaise replied.

 

“I wonder who it is he got, preferably not one of his faithful followers.” Harry said as he went back to eating.

 

 

Ten minutes later, the constant chatter amongst the students was interrupted when the doors to the Great Hall opened. Every head in the hall turned to see who was entering so late in the evening.

 

 

“Great, he brought in Kingsley. At least he doesn’t believe everything that comes out of Dumbledore’s mouth.” Harry said as he saw who was walking down the centre aisle.

 

“He’ll be a good substitute until Remy gets back.” Harry told them.

 

 

Kingsley walked up to the head table and shook Dumbledore’s hand before walking around and taking Remus’ empty seat, it was only then that everyone else noticed that their regular DADA teacher was not present.

 

The students settled back down and went back to their meals. The rest of dinner passed with idle chit chat and the occasional outburst from a group of rowdy fifth year Gryffindor’s. Harry’s group stayed relatively quiet, save for the occasional question about their holiday homework.

 

Once everyone had finished eating, Dumbledore stood from his seat and addressed the students.

 

 

“As many of you are most likely wondering, Professor Lupin will be on leave for the next month and a half. Taking his place will be Auror Shacklebolt, he has asked that you all address him as such during his stay here.”

 

“If you will all please head to your dorms, curfew is in an hour.”

 

 

Before Harry could get so much as ten steps from his seat, he was accosted by Dumbledore.

 

 

“Mr Potter, I require your presence in my office.”

 

“Sorry, but no.” Harry replied.

 

“I beg your pardon, Mr Potter?”

 

“Does the reason you want to see me have anything to do with my schooling?” Harry asked.

 

“No, it is to do with Order matters.” Dumbledore replied, he was starting to get irritated with the little brat.

 

“Seeing as I am not a member of the Order and this isn’t a school issue, I _respectfully_ decline your request.” Harry told the interfering coot before walked off with Draco who had waited behind.

 

“Mr Potter!” Dumbledore yelled.

 

“It’s no use, Albus. The boy has a point, unless his Head of House has come to you with an issue involving Mr Potter then you have no right to call him to your office. And while the Order continues to plan his future, I doubt he will speak with you about Order business.” McGonagall told him before she too left the Hall.

 

“Severus! How are those potions I asked for going?” Dumbledore asked as he turned just in time to see his potions master trying to sneak out of the teacher’s entrance.

 

“I have yet to start, with the winter season in full swing, Madame Pomphrey has requested I restock the stores she ran out of before the holidays. I also have Lupin’s potion to brew seeing as you sent him away with only enough for the werewolves he is trying to recruit.” Severus explained.

 

“Very well, but once the potions are done for the Hospital Wing, I want those potions made and ready for use.” Dumbledore told the other man before he stormed from the Hall.

 

“Hopefully by then you’ll be gone.” Severus murmured as he glared at the old coots retreating back before he swept from the room in his usual manner.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

“I’m not that surprised that Fudge would be involved in Dumbledore’s plans.” Harry said as he listened to what Godric had overheard whilst snooping in Dumbledore’s office.

 

“He won’t be a problem for much longer, I got a letter from dad this morning. I didn’t get a chance to tell you of its contents but his request for a meeting with Madame Bones was accepted.” Draco told Harry.

 

“When is the meeting?”

 

“Friday at two, she has some meetings with the heads of the Auror department and the Unspeakables.” Draco replied.

 

“Okay, so hopefully a Wizengamot meeting can be arranged for the weekend and we’ll be rid of Fudge by Monday.”

 

“The public outcry has risen since the press conference that Fudge issued the day after the attack at Diagon Alley. About eighty five percent of the magical community are calling for him to be replaced in office by someone who is actually going to do good for everyone rather than for themselves.” Pansy spoke up.

 

 

Pansy had taken on the role of news follower, she had subscriptions to every form of magical news as well as a rather useful news chain in the school throughout all four houses. She had been keeping track of the paper articles, and the wizarding wireless news station since Fudge gave his press conference trying to explain why children fought a battle that the Auror’s were supposed to fight.

 

The outrage from some of the DA member’s parents almost caused some members to not return for the final semester of school. With all that against him, Fudge would be hard pressed to come up with a plausible excuse to keep his job once brought before the Wizengamot.

 

 

“Those articles will work in our favour; my father will be sure to bring them up at the meeting.” Draco added.

 

“And what of the Headmaster?” Salazar asked from his spot in the new frame that Harry had made for the pair.

 

“With Lucius in as Minister he has a more influential vote on the Board of Governors, a lot of people are unhappy with him as well. Because some of the students at Diagon Alley were in fact supposed to be in his care over the holidays and he had no idea where they were. They’re demanding answers from him as well.” Harry told the Founder.

 

“The next DA meeting is Thursday night, we can inform the members of what is happening. Fred and George will be turning up shortly after dinner. I’ve completed the list of spells for this term, with the attack in Diagon Alley, we need to up the repertoire of our spells.”

 

“Well I’m heading off to bed, I’m buggered.” Harry said as he stood from his seat.

 

“And sexually frustrated.” Draco added.

 

“Shove off, Malfoy.” Harry replied, middle finger raised at his best friend.

 

“Pansy is on Prefect duty in the dungeons tonight.” Blaise pointed out.

 

“So?” Harry asked.

 

“So, I may just look the other way if you decide to pay a visit to the resident Potions Master.” Pansy answered as she looked at the black-haired teen, a smirk forming on her face.

 

“I hate you guys.” Harry said as he made his way to the door.

 

“Oh, we love you too, Harry.” Blaise called out before the door had a chance to close.

 

 

Paying a visit to Severus tonight may not be such a bad idea, he hadn’t had a chance to see him outside of class since school had started. The older wizard had been so busy with the potions for the Hospital Wing, so Harry had opted to leave the man to his potions. But, like Draco had said, he was sexually frustrated and he missed spending time with his older lover.

 

Harry headed to the Slytherin common room, it was still filled with students working on their class assignments. He bypassed the main sitting area and made his way to the seventh-year boys dorm, once changed out of his uniform he exited the Slytherin common room and made his way to Severus’ rooms. Having the man’s password made it easier to enter without disturbing him during his work.

 

As Harry walked down the dungeon corridor he came across his friends who were making their way back to the common room. Draco had his usual all-knowing smirk on his face as they crossed paths.

 

 

“Have fun.”

 

“Bite me.” Harry replied.

 

“No thanks, you’re not my type.” Draco replied as he grabbed Blaise’s hand before turning back around to keep walking down the corridor.

 

 

Harry shook his head with a fond smile on his face, he was glad the blonde was now his friend. If he had known in his first year what he knew now, then he would have taken the boy’s hand when he had offered it. Uttering the password to Severus’ rooms, Harry walked inside with a smile on his face and determination to distract the older man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry, the results of Harry's revenge on Ginny will be seen to in the next chapter as a flashback of Harry's while he waits for the Wizengamot trial to finish. I got inspiration from a couple of reviewers and I had to add it in.


	17. The Verdict is in

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to say a big thank you to everyone who is following this story, you guys are awesome and the main reason I keep up with my stories, even if I am slow in posting.

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
**Warnings:** Slash and AU after year 5. Violence, swearing.  
**Pairings:** HP/SS, DM/BZ, LM/RL, FW/AJ, GW/OW

 

 

_A Government is a body of people: usually, notably, ungoverned._

**Chapter 17:** The Verdict is in.

 

“Good evening everyone, thanks for turning up to tonight’s meeting. Things are about to take a turn for the better if the plans we have put in motion pan out.” Harry started as the last member of the DA entered the Chamber.

 

“As you are all no doubt aware, the public outcry for Fudge’s dismissal from Minister of Magic is high. My father has called for a meeting with Madame Bones, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.” Draco added.

 

“Will Fudge be getting the sack?” A fifth year Slytherin asked.

 

“Hopefully he will be, if Madame Bones agrees to Mr Malfoy’s proposal then the Wizengamot will be called in full to pass on the ruling.” Harry replied.

 

“Who is going to be the new Minister?” Terry Boot asked.

 

“My father is going to take the position if the Wizengamot agree upon it. Once he is in office, he’ll call a meeting with the Board of Governors and put through a vote to get Dumbledore away from Hogwarts.” Draco explained.

 

“Who will be in charge here, then?” The same Slytherin from before asked.

 

“Professor McGonagall will advance from Deputy Headmistress to Headmistress.” Hermione told the gathered group.

 

“She’d probably run this place a damn sight better than Dumbledore.” Blaise added.

 

“A two-year-old Hippogriff would run this place better.” Fred added, causing laughter to filter through the group.

 

“All right, all that aside we are here because the twins have come up with some new potions for our use.” Harry told the group, he then stepped back and let Fred and George have front and centre.

 

“Okay, we know there are spells for invisibility but they can be countered by spells and wards. This little beauty will render the drinker invisible for an hour and cannot be countered by any spell or ward.” George explained as he held up a potion vial, the liquid a metallic purple in colour.

 

“This one will temporarily blind an opponent, perfect for when you find yourself cornered.” Fred added as he held up a vial with a bright yellow liquid in it.

 

“This final one we have is a real beauty, took us ages to get it to work properly. Seeing as some of you are too young to get your apparition licenses, this potion will transport you to a predetermined destination. All you need to do is tap on the vial with your wand three times and say the destination before drinking the potion and it will act like an apparition.” George explained as he held up a vial containing a deep burgundy coloured liquid.

 

“How many do have to go around?” Severus asked the twins, he’d never admit it, at least not without Veritaserum, but the Weasley twins were the brightest students to pass through his potions room.

 

“We don’t have enough resources or space to mass produce the potions but we did bring with us the list of ingredients and the instructions to make them.” George told him.

 

“Okay, it’s a Hogsmeade weekend this week. I’ll take a detour and go to Diagon Alley and pick up the supplies needed. We’ll split you all into three groups and each group will work on a supply of the potion you’re supplied.” Harry said as he took the list if potions ingredients that Fred held out.

 

“I’ll write up a list tonight for the three groups, then I’ll come back down here tomorrow to set up the work spaces.” Hermione added.

 

“Okay, now that we have that all sorted out, let’s get back to practice. Tonight, we are going to concentrate on the spells needed to subdue a raging werewolf because it’s a guarantee that Voldemort is going to have some on his side.” Harry told the DA members as they began to separate into their training groups.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHP**

It was seven o’clock at night and Harry was sitting in the waiting room outside of the Wizengamot chambers. After Lucius’ meeting with Madame Bones on Friday, she had gone to the Wizengamot with her findings and they decided to call a trial against the Minister.

 

Lucius had informed Harry that the Wizengamot trial was scheduled for that Saturday, the Headmaster would be present but would not be able to argue for Fudge. Evidence of more than his ignorance has surfaced against Fudge, all his past misdoings started to come out of the woodwork since the battle in Diagon Alley.

 

The man had received several bribes over the years to allow certain individuals free access to any floor in the Ministry without having to check their wands. So far, two of those individuals had been proven to be Death Eaters accessing the Ministry on Voldemort’s behalf. His interference at Hogwarts during Harry’s fifth year was also considered, the Minister had circumvented certain rules put into place when the Ministry was first created. No Ministry official had ever dared to break it so it wasn’t a well-known one, but it was put in place to prevent the Ministry from interfering in the day to day workings of Hogwarts.

 

Delores Umbridge’s appointment to Hogwarts went against this rule, she would be getting her just desserts as well considering Madame Bones had found the evidence to prove that the vial toad of a woman was the one responsible for setting the Dementor’s on Harry the summer before his fifth year. Her trial would come later.

 

Sitting in his seat, Harry waited for the trial to end so he could find out the result. Next to go would be Dumbledore, Lucius had already told him that several parents had already put through complaints to the Board of Governor’s concerning the aging wizard’s involvement in what had occurred in Diagon Alley. Harry knew the public outcry was significant but he didn’t know how much until Lucius had shown him the list of complaints.

 

Professor McGonagall would be set to take up the position of Head of Hogwarts, something all the parents had agreed on remembering her stern teachings from their days at the school. They knew the school would be run fairly and without students being put in danger. Severus would then progress to Deputy Headmaster, a position he refused until the other staff members agreed that he would be the best candidate for the job.

 

Thinking of his lover, Harry remembered the reward he had received from the older wizard for original thinking after his little revenge against Ginny. That day’s events were still vivid in Harry’s memory and he still chuckled at the thought.

 

Dobby had managed to get his hands on the potion that the youngest Weasley had been trying to slip to his Master. The elf that Ginny had been using to try and put the potion in Harry’s juice had then punished itself severely once he had discovered what the potion was he had been trying to give to Harry. Dobby had made sure to shame the House Elf in front of the other ones employed by Hogwarts and the Head Elf had taken the culprit off of meal duties.

 

Dobby had waited for the signal he would receive from Harry as to the position of the wizard whose drink he was to put the potion into. Once he had done so, all he had to do was wait for the food to be transported to the tables above and let Master Harry deal with the fall out.

 

 

_Flashback_

_“Revenge is a dish best served cold.” Harry said as he got ready the first morning of class._

_“Who said that?” Pansy asked from her splayed position on Theo’s bed._

_“It’s a muggle saying, not sure who first said it but its apt for today’s events.” Harry replied as he tied his school tie, the silver and green of it always highlighted the brightness of his eyes._

_“I like it.” Blaise said._

_“Today is going to be very entertaining.” Draco added from where he was stood in front of his mirror, working on his hair._

_“You spend way more time than is necessary on your hair.” Harry told the boy as he walked past him to grab his bag._

_“Oh, shut up.”_

_“So is mine, must be the weather.” Harry replied before walking out the door._

_“What?” Harry heard before the bedroom door closed._

_Harry made his way out of the Slytherin common room on his way to the Great Hall for breakfast, the others would catch up with him once they were ready for the day._

_Arriving at the Great Hall, Harry made his way to his usual seat at the Slytherin table. With a brief glance to the Head table he noted that Dumbledore hadn’t arrived yet but Severus was there with his usual scowl adorning his face. Harry sat down at the table and placed his bag under the bench seat, looking around the hall he noticed that only a few students were scattered amongst the tables and none of them were his intended audience._

_“Morning, Harry.” Harry looked to where the voice had come from._

_“Morning, Luna. How was your New Year?” Harry asked the usually spaced out girl._

_“It was informative, my father and I went searching for Gulping Plimpy’s.” Luna informed him as she sat next to him._

_“Sounds interesting. Did you find any?” Harry asked._

_“No, but we did come close though.” Luna replied._

_Harry and Luna sat chatting as the Great Hall slowly filled up with half asleep students slowly making their way to their house tables. Once Draco, Blaise and Pansy had arrived at the table, Luna went back to the Ravenclaw table for the start of breakfast._

_As breakfast began, Harry and his friends discreetly looked down their table at where two Slytherin’s were sitting. These two had been trying to cause problems for Harry ever since he had been re-sorted into Slytherin at the start of the year._

_Harry figured that this would be the best way to get them and Ginny off of his back for a while and would hopefully show the headmaster that he knew what the man was trying to do. It didn’t hurt that the end results would be hilarious and would provide Harry with amusement for a while to come._

_The results were instantaneous, making Harry wonder what type of potion the youngest Weasley had started using now. The previous potion was a slow acting one that would have taken effect by the end of his meals, this one took effect right away. Within a minute, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle were each other over the affections they had for one Ginny Weasley._

_Both boys rose from their seats and made their way around the Slytherin table, push each other out of the way as they went. Upon realising what was going on, Ginny looked over to Harry to see a knowing smirk appear. With her eyes wide with fear, the young witch looked to where Crabbe and Goyle were trying to make their way to her. Ron got up from his seat to stop them from getting to his sister but the two boys just barrelled through him on their way to their destination._

_With a fearful shriek, Ginny jumped up from her seat and bolted out of the hall, both Slytherin’s hot on her heals. A snort from Pansy broke the dam and the entire hall broke out in laughter, even some of the teachers had smiles on their faces that they couldn’t hide._

_Harry looked up to the Head Table and saw Dumbledore staring at him, an irritated look on his face. Harry’s grin grew wider and he put his hands up in front of him and stuck his thumbs up at the headmaster with a shit eating grin aimed at the old codger. Draco cracked up next to him and almost fell off of his seat, he was laughing so hard._

_“That was rather satisfying, they should keep each other occupied for a while.” Pansy stated as they watched Ron get up from his splayed spot on the floor to chase after the retreating wizards who were after his sister._

_“I’d love to be a fly on the wall when those two dimwits catch up to the Weaselette.” Harry said as he started to eat his breakfast._

_End Flashback_

Crabbe and Goyle had chased the youngest Weasley all over the castle by the time Professor McGonagall and Severus had been able to find them. The pair were in the middle of a fist fight trying to prove who was better suited for her when the two teachers found them. Severus had been tempted to just let them keep going at it but Minerva wouldn’t allow him his fun so in the end he had to petrify the two boys and take them to the Hospital Wing whilst he prepared the antidote to the potion they had ingested.

 

Dumbledore was unable to lay any blame on Harry without exposing his knowledge of the potion in the first place. He had, however, tried to get Harry to his office for a meeting but without it pertaining to school business, Harry had told him to shove it.

 

Harry and his friends were really hoping that the results of the potion would last longer than a couple of hours but Harry did get satisfaction from knowing that Ginny was now avoiding him at all costs once she realised he had known all along about the potion.

 

Harry had just reached into the bag he had brought with him, when the door across from him opened and an irate Fudge stormed out of the room, followed by two Auror’s. The irate man spotted Harry sitting in his seat and he made a beeline for the young wizard, grabbing him around the throat the shorter wizard picked Harry up and started to shake him.

 

 

“This is all your fault, I lost my job because of you.” Fudge screamed as he continued to shake Harry.

 

 

It took the two Auror’s who escorted the irate man out of the courtroom, as well as another two, to finally pull the older wizard off Harry. Once his hands had been removed, Harry gasped in big gulps of air trying to regain his breath the residual panic sending him to his knees.

 

 

“Harry, are you all right?” Lucius asked as he kneeled next to the still gasping wizard.

 

“Mother fucker tried to strangle me.” Harry rasped out, coughing at the end.

 

“You lost me my job!”

 

“You lost your job due to your own incompetence, Mr Potter just helped us air all the skeletons in your closet.” Madame Bones told the man.

 

“Harry, do you want to add assault to the charges that have been filed against the former Minister?” Madame Bones asked, once Lucius helped him to his feet.

 

“Bloody oath I do, just goes to show how touched in the head that nutcase is.” Harry replied, he could barely speak above a whisper and Lucius noted handprint shaped bruises already starting to show around Harry’s neck.

 

“Auror’s, please take Mr Fudge to the holding cells. He can wait there for all the charges to be written up, I’m sorry Mr Potter for the events that just unfolded.”

 

“It’s all right, mam, you didn’t know what would happen.” Harry assured her.

 

“So, did you get the job?” Harry asked the older blonde.

 

“Mr Malfoy has been offered the job of Minister of Magic, he will take up this role Monday morning once all the paperwork has been sorted.” Madame Bones answered.

 

“Awesome, can we go back to Hogwarts now?” Harry asked.

 

“That’s fine, Mr Malfoy, we will send out all the paperwork you need to transition into your new position. Either you can choose an assistant or we can give you a list of likely candidates.” Madame Bones told Lucius.

 

“Thank you, please send me a list of candidates for the job and I’ll have one picked out by Monday.” Lucius informed her before he turned around, still supporting Harry, and made their way to the lift that would take them to the atrium.

 

“Severus is not going to be happy when he sees what that fool did to you.”

 

“I know, he’ll get all fussy and won’t let me out of his sight until he is sure I’m properly healed.”

 

“For someone who tries to be menacing, he can be a real teddy bear at times.” Lucius said as they entered the lift.

 

“I’m going to tell him you said that.”

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

“What in the name of Merlin happened to you?” Severus asked Harry as soon as the younger wizard came into his rooms.

 

“Fudge went nuts after the hearing and attempted to strangle me to death.” Harry replied as he was pulled close to his lover for inspection.

 

“Maybe I should strangle him.” Severus said as he made his way to his private potions cabinet to retrieve healing potions for Harry.

 

“He is currently being held in a cell at the Ministry until all the charges against him can be made clear. Harry has added an assault charge to the growing pile so he won’t be getting away with what he did.” Lucius assured his friend.

 

“Take this one first.” Severus told Harry as he handed him a potion vial.

 

 

Without needing to ask what the potion was, Harry took it and downed it without a thought. He started to feel his neck healing almost instantly, not unusual considering the quality of Severus’ potions.

 

 

“So Fudge is finally gone?” Draco asked from his spot on the lounge.

 

“Yes, Madame Bones will be sending the necessary paperwork to me and I will be taking over the position of Minister for Magic come Monday morning.” Lucius explained.

 

“One down, one to go.” Blaise added.

 

“That will be my first order of business, while Fudge had no right to interfere in Hogwarts when he sent in Umbridge, the Board of Governors have every right to assess the validity of the Headmaster and teachers of the school. They can’t enforce anything unless there are enough complaints against an individual from several parties.” Lucius told them.

 

“So Dumbledore’s dismissal must go through the board of Governors?” Harry asked.

 

“Yes, if we want it all done legally so that it sticks and he can’t find a way around it, then yes we will need to take it to the Board of Governors.” Lucius told him.

 

“So it will take a bit longer to be rid of Dumbledore?” Pansy asked.

 

“Not necessarily, there is enough outcry from the parents of the students involved in the attack at Diagon Alley that the Governors will have a solid case against Dumbledore. If the students also put in a complaint as well as those teachers not blindly loyal to him, then Dumbledore can be removed from his position at Hogwarts.” Severus added.

 

“I’ll get the DA members to write letters, the next meeting is tomorrow night.” Harry told Lucius.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHP**

Sunday passed by quickly, the DA members spending the lesson writing out their letters for Lucius to give to the Governors. Harry, Hermione and Draco had set up the potions table and had each started one of the potions that the twins had come up with.

 

Harry was still unable to see anymore visions from Voldemort, seemed the man only left his mind vulnerable when he was truly mad, something that hadn’t happened since the DA had foiled his attack on Diagon Alley. The dark wizard was so mad that Harry’s scar had split, leaving a slow flowing trail of blood down his forehead. Several Death Eaters had met their untimely end due to Voldemort’s rage.

 

By the time Monday had arrived, word had spread about Fudge being fired and Lucius Malfoy taking his place. The typical ‘Death Eater’ spiel was spat out by those who didn’t trust the blonde aristocrat, however, the Prophet article that was published Monday morning helped to quell some of their fears.

 

 

**_FUDGE OUSTED!_ **

**_LUCIUS MALFOY TO TAKE HIS PLACE_ **

****

****

_A Wizengamot meeting was held this past Saturday where Cornelius Fudge was found to be incompetent by the full body of witches and wizards._

_Many parents had put forth complaints when the former Minister had gone against his promise to protect Diagon Alley from the vast forces of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. When the Death Eaters had attacked, students from Hogwarts were the only ones to fight against them, leaving many parents outraged._

_It also came to light that former Minister Fudge had circumvented certain rules to insert Delores Umbridge at Hogwarts to change the running of the school to better suit his own views rather than those of the Four Founders._

_It was also found that the Dementor attack that took place in the muggle town of Surrey that almost cost Harry Potter his life, was set about and organised by Delores Umbridge herself. These matters have caused great concern for the Magical Law Enforcement department as well as for the members of the Wizengamot, resulting in Cornelius Fudge’s immediate dismissal._

_Lucius Malfoy’s appointment as Minister of Magic was cause for controversy when quite a few witches and wizards protested the appointment of a Death Eater. However, Lucius Malfoy had supplied the Wizengamot with sufficient evidence to prove he had been a spy for the light since the beginning of the first war._

_All we can hope for now is a Minister who cares more for the people than for their own agenda._

_Rita Skeeter_

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHP**

“Voldemort is pissed.” Harry said as he clutched his head in pain.

 

“We knew he would be, Lucius is the one that got away.” Severus replied as he lay Harry’s head in his lap to massage his temples.

 

“Dumbledore doesn’t seem too impressed either.” Harry added as he closed his eyes, relaxing into his position on the lounge.

 

“He no longer has an ally in power at the Ministry, he will try to gain control of Lucius but once he realises he can’t, he will step up on his attempts to regain control of you.”

 

“Are you still delaying on making the potions he asked for?” Harry asked.

 

“Yes but I am running out of excuses. I have almost restocked the Hospital Wings potion supply and I have Remus’ potion brewing. It won’t be long before he demands I brew the potion for him.” Severus told his young lover.

 

“Brew the potions.”

 

“I beg your pardon?” Severus asked incredulously as he rose from his position, dislodging Harry from his lap.

 

“Make the potions for Dumbledore.” Harry replied.

 

“Are you mad? Why in Merlin’s name would I make compulsion potions to be used to control you?” Severus asked, agitation seeping through his words.

 

“Because the more we have against Dumbledore, the quicker we can be rid of him. If you make the potions and give them to him then we can catch him in the act of trying to give them to me. You know as well as I do that if he is still left unchecked then he will cause trouble for us.” Harry explained.

 

“And what happens if he manages to give you the potions?” Severus asked.

 

“Then you’ll have the antidote and all will be well.” Harry assured as he moved closer to his irate lover.

 

“Sometimes I wonder how you come up with these ideas of yours.” Severus relented.

 

“They always work out though, now don’t they?” Harry asked as he wrapped his arms around Severus’ neck.

 

“Sooner or later one of your plans is going to backfire.” Severus warned.

 

“There’s no use wondering about what ifs, you’ll go grey.” Harry replied with a cheeky grin.

 

“Smart ass little…”

 

 

Severus was cut off by Harry’s lips slanting over his own, perhaps the brat was right; no point in worrying about the what ifs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next one. Dumbledore gets his comeuppance in the next chapter, then it's the big battle followed by the epilogue. Can't believe this is almost finished considering when I first started it and had it primarily posted on fanfiction.net. Hope you all enjoyed it.


	18. The Fall of Dumbledore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the next one. It would have been posted on Friday but I've been binge watching the first nine seasons of The Big Bang Theory and I got distracted. Awesome show but not the best thing to do when you're trying to concentrate. Anyway, here it is.

**Disclaimer:** This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.  
**Warnings:** Slash and AU after year 5. Violence, swearing.  
**Pairings:** HP/SS, DM/BZ, LM/RL, FW/AJ, GW/OW

 

 

_A Hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. – Christopher Reeve._

 

 

**Chapter Eighteen:** The Fall of Dumbledore

 

 

“Again!”

 

 

If Harry ever thought that Severus would go easy on him during their training sessions just because they were together, he sure as hell didn’t think that now. His older lover was even more intense in their training now that he had a real investment in Harry’s survival. Their training sessions had begun to intensify after the attack in Diagon Alley but had gotten worse after Fudge had attacked and almost strangled Harry after the Wizengamot hearing.

 

They were training in the Chamber of Secrets before the next DA meeting was due to start, the only place safe enough for Severus to go all out. The older wizard figured that if Harry had yet to best him in one of their duels then he stood no chance against a stronger and more cunning wizard like Voldemort.

 

Harry was not a happy individual, they had been going at it for only half an hour and yet Harry was already bruised in places he didn’t even know could bruise. He understood the need for the more rigorous training but it was starting to frustrate him, he hadn’t even managed to disarm Severus let alone hit him with either spell or fist.

 

 

“You’re getting sloppy, you’re making the same mistakes you made five minutes ago, concentrate.”

 

“I am, you’re not an easy target to hit.” Harry yelled, frustration mounting.

 

“And do you think the Dark Lord will be? He will not go easy on you, Potter. He will wear you down until he has you at his mercy before he ends your life quicker than it started.” Severus yelled back.

 

“What am I supposed to do then, huh? If I can’t beat you than I’ll be worthless in the fight against Voldemort.”

 

“You need to concentrate, think about now not what may or may not happen in the final battle. The Dark Lord will not let you take a break when you get tired fighting him, any sign of weakness from you and he will pounce on the opportunity to cause all the damage he can to you.” Severus explained.

 

“Why are we even bothering? It’s been almost a year and I can’t even best you in a fight. You have me fighting the way a normal duel would go but Voldemort won’t play fair, that man doesn’t even know the meaning of the word.” Harry told the older wizard.

 

“So, what, you’re just going to give up? Throw in the towel and let the Dark Lord win”

 

“No! That is not what I want to do.” Harry yelled.

 

 

“Then what? Standing here arguing is not going to help matters.” Severus asked, he was starting to get angry with the younger wizard.

 

“I want a different option, something that Voldemort won’t expect. You all want me to go up against him by myself, not a single person has volunteered to help me fight him.”

 

“I am helping you.”

 

“No, you’re training me to fight against honourable witches and wizards. Voldemort is not honourable; these tactics won’t work in a fight against him. I want to come out of this war alive, Severus, I don’t want Voldemort to finish what he started all those years ago, when he killed my parents.” Harry explained, a pleading look on his face as he looked at the man across from him.

 

“I don’t want you to die any more than you do, Harry.” Severus said softly, he made his way over to where Harry was standing.

 

“I’m scared, Severus. I know I’m supposed to be this great Hero who is going to save everyone from the big bad, but in reality, I’m scared out of my mind.” Harry told him as the taller man grabbed his hands.

 

“We need to change our strategy if we expect to destroy Voldemort once and for all, perhaps we can integrate the twin’s potions into the battle plan. If we can isolate Voldemort from his followers, distract them with the other DA members, then maybe we can even the odds between the pair of you.” Severus suggested.

 

“Okay, the meeting starts in an hour and there’s something more fun that we could be doing.” Harry said as he wrapped his arms around Severus’ neck.

 

“Really? What could possibly be more fun than training?” Severus asked.

 

“Hmm, maybe a practical demonstration is in order.” Harry replied before taking Severus’ hand and leading him through the Chamber to Salazar’s rooms.

 

“Would this be counted as make up sex?” Severus asked.

 

“Why yes, Severus, it definitely is.” Harry told him as he closed the door.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSS**

“We need to change our whole strategy.” Harry informed the DA once the meeting started.

 

“Why?” Hermione asked, it was the first she had heard about it.

 

“Harry recently pointed out that if he goes up against Voldemort on his own, he’ll lose.” Severus explained.

 

“But he’s been training with you since school started.” Draco said.

 

“And I have yet to beat him, if I can’t best Severus in a fight than how in Merlin’s name am I to win in a fight against Voldemort.” Harry explained.

 

“If Harry had been given training when the Dark Lord first came back then he would be ready to face him on his own, Harry is powerful but even the most powerful wizard needs training.” Severus explained.

 

“I don’t want any of you to fight Voldemort for me, but if we can work out a plan that will have you guys causing distractions then maybe I can beat him.”

 

“The Dark Lord will use any means he deems necessary to win in a fight, that includes fighting dirty to gain the upper hand. What we need to do is think two steps ahead of him, keep him guessing whilst Harry fights him.” Severus explained further.

 

“I think I have an idea, just let me sort it in my head first before I tell you about it.” Blaise told them, a look of intrigue on his face.

 

“All right, while you sort out the details we’ll get back to the potions making. Okay everyone, split up into your groups and get back to your potions. Once you have reached a break in the making, get into your battle groups and work through this month’s spell list, if you need any help just aske one of us.” Harry said.

 

 

The DA members broke off into their groups for the potions they had been assigned, there were several tables along the far-left wall where they had been working on the potions the twins had created. Hermione was working at a table that had several cauldrons with various healing potions, the table next to it had pepper up potions brewing as well.

 

Severus, Draco and Pansy were working at two tables pushed beside each other, in the cauldrons was a potion to repair the nerve damage caused by the Cruciatus curse. They would need to stock up on those considering they would be going up against Death Eaters.

 

Harry made his way over to where Blaise was writing on a piece of parchment, he was curious about the plan the older boy had in his mind. They had discovered that Blaise was great at strategy, his chess skills making plans easier for him to predict. If anyone could come up with a good, solid plan to defeat Voldemort, it would be Blaise.

 

 

“What’s going on in that head of yours?” Harry asked as he sat in the seat opposite from Blaise.

 

“We need to draw Voldemort away from the Death Eaters, they’ll try and help him if you come close to gaining the upper hand. You said that Bill Weasley is an expert with wards?” Blaise asked.

 

“Yeah, he works for Gringotts.” Harry replied.

 

“I’m going to need his help, I have a plan forming in my mind and if it’s going to pan out then I need the help of someone familiar with wards.” Blaise explained.

 

“Okay, I’ll send Bill a letter. We should hear back from him by the end of the week., before the next meeting.” Harry assured him.

 

“Great, in the mean time I’ll continue outlining the plan.”

 

 

Seeing everyone busy at their tasks, Harry made his way over to the practice corner and set about training with the dummies they had charmed.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHP**

Lucius never liked paperwork, now he was inundated with a mountain of it and it was only his second week as Minister of Magic. The paperwork was a necessary evil though, especially if he wanted the new laws he was implementing to take effect.

 

All of Fudge’s supporters had been dismissed from the ministry after proof of corruption within their departments led back to them. The amount of corruption was insurmountable, almost every department head was involved. The only departments that were free of the corruption was, surprisingly, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Magical Accidents and Catastrophes and the Department of International Magical Cooperation.

 

Within his first week as Minister, Lucius had discovered several sports events had been fixed to benefit the new head of the Magical Games and Sports department. The head of the Department of Magical Transportation had set up spying charms on the Floo networks of several Ministry officials who were prone to protesting Fudge’s various outrageous laws that he wanted passed.

 

Lucius wasn’t even going to think about what the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures wanted to do. He was likely to go down there and strangle quite a few of them for the laws they had the audacity to write up.

 

He was glad that he took over office when he did, before the new laws could be passed, getting rid of a law that has been passed was a lot harder than getting rid of an idea. It would have been passed several months ago if several workers in that department hadn’t ‘lost’ the paperwork, Lucius would be sure to promote those involved in hiding the documents.

 

 

“Sir, these are the promotion forms you requested.” Lucius had been quick to fire the snivelling little suck up, Percy Weasley, once he had taken over as Minister. His new assistant was a Ravenclaw graduate who had been making his way up in the Ministry.

 

“Thank you, Anderson, that will be all for today.” Lucius replied, taking the parchments and placing them on the top of his ever-growing pile.

 

“Of course, sir, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

 

“Anderson, it’s the weekend, go home. I can do what I have here over the weekend, all you’ll have to do on Monday is file them all.” Lucius told the young wizard, no point in both of them being stuck here over the weekend.

 

“Thank you, sir.”

 

 

With a wave goodbye, Lucius’ assistant left the office, closing the door behind him. Lucius was left in the silence of his office with his mountain of paperwork as his only company. He could not wait for Remus to come home, two more weeks and his fiancé would finally be back in his arms.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHP**

Remus had been with the Parker Werewolf clan for a week now, trying to negotiate a treaty. The negotiations were not going too well, though they were going better than the last clan he visited, they trusted Dumbledore as much as they trusted the Ministry. Their hesitation was well merited, Dumbledore had done no better than the Ministry when it came to their rights.

 

Talyn Parker, the alpha of the clan, was not going to sacrifice the members of his clan if they were still going to be treated the same way after everything was said and done. He understood where Remus was coming from but even he was still being treated like trash while living in the wizarding world.

 

 

“How can you defend Dumbledore and Ministry when they still treat you the way they do?” Talyn asked.

 

“I’m not here for them, Dumbledore thinks I am but I trust him about as much as you do.” Remus replied.

 

“IF you’re not here for Dumbledore or the Ministry, then who are you here for?” Talyn’s mate, Alex, asked.

 

“I’m here on behalf of my godson, a wizard who has nothing to do with Dumbledore or the Ministry.” Remus told them.

 

“And who is your godson?” Talyn asked, his curiosity piqued.

 

“Harry Potter.”

 

“The saviour of the wizarding world is your godson?” Alex asked.

 

“Yes, and he’s not fighting this war for Dumbledore or the Ministry. He wants all magical creatures to have their rights back, in his six years at Hogwarts, he has made friends with several different creatures.” Remus explained.

 

 

Before anyone else could say any more, there was a pop next to the fire and they all looked up to see a house elf standing there. Remus recognised the elf immediately and wondered why Dobby had turned up.

 

 

“Dobby, what are you doing here?”

 

“Master Harry sent me, Master Lucius was made the new Minister for Magic and they have requested that I bring this paperwork to you.” Dobby explained as he handed over the stack of papers he had in his hands.

 

 

Remus grabbed the papers from the elf and started to go through them, the second sheet caught his attention and he decided to concentrate on that one. It was a draft for a law change to do with Werewolves in the magical world, restoring their rights and allowing them to live in the wizarding community as well as allowing them to have jobs and attend Hogwarts. This draft would greatly help his endeavour to get this clan to join them.

 

 

“I think this will interest you very much.” Remus said as he handed the draft over to Talyn.

 

“What is it?” Alex asked as he moved closer to his mate.

 

 

They both read over the paper that Remus had handed them, their hope grew the further down the sheet they read. Once they had finished reading the proposal, they looked at each other and seemed to communicate without talking to each other.

 

 

“Is this serious?”  Talyn asked as he looked over to Remus.

 

“Yes, my mate has just been made the new Minister of Magic and he is going through the old laws and updating them.” Remus explained.

 

“What is it, Alpha?” One of the other members asked.

 

“It’s a draft for a new law proposal. If it’s passed then we will no longer be considered outcasts of the wizarding world, werewolves will be f=given the opportunity to have jobs in the wizarding world as well as we will be able to live amongst the communities. Our kids will even be given the opportunity to attend Hogwarts.” Talyn explained to his pack.

 

“What’s the catch?” Another member called out.

 

“So long as we have a structure strong enough to contain us during the full moon as well as taking the Wolfsbane potion every month, then we should be set.” Alex told them.

 

“I’m pretty sure there will be more details to come but Harry felt it necessary to send this to me now to let you all know how serious he is with his proposed change for the wizarding world. Fudge has already been fired and has charges against him pending, next up to go is Dumbledore who has been trying to gain back his control of my godson since Harry starting going against him during the summer.” Remus added once he had finished reading the other documents he had received.

 

“This could be the change we have been hoping for since my grandfather started this clan over a hundred years ago. If we can finally be free of persecution, then shouldn’t we help fight for that right?” Talyn asked as he looked at every member of his pack.

 

 

There were murmurs of approval amongst the werewolves, most were nodding their heads in agreement to what their Alpha had said. Surprisingly, there were a couple of angry faces in the crowd.

 

 

“How can we trust them? What if this is all a ruse to get us to fight their war for them?” One of the angry werewolves shouted as he stood from his spot on the ground.

 

“You know nothing of Harry Potter, do you?” Remus asked as he too stood from his spot on the ground.

 

“I know all I need to, he’s no better than the ministry nor is he better than Dumbledore. He’s nothing more than a spoilt rich boy who won’t take no for an answer so he’d rather force us by giving us false hopes that will disappear as soon as we have fought his war.” The same Werewolf yelled back.

 

“He grew up in a home full of hate and contempt, all of that aimed at him. He was physically, mentally and emotionally abused by people who were supposed to love him, all because his aunt is a jealous old cow who never liked the fact that her sister could do magic and she couldn’t.” Remus started, he would make these people understand why Harry fought for their rights.

 

“He didn’t even know his own name until he started at muggle school when his aunt and uncle had to inform him so they wouldn’t incur the wrath of any school official. He lived in a cupboard under the stairs until his Hogwarts letter arrived and they noticed the address on the envelope, he was then moved to his morbidly obese cousins second bedroom much the fat lumps many protests.”

 

“His home life got worse once he started at Hogwarts, he had to go back to that place every summer even though he begged the Headmaster not to send him back. Harry’s uncle stepped up the abuse when he decided that it would be a good idea to try and beat the magic out of Harry, thinking that would make the boy ‘normal’. Then when Voldemort returned at the end of Harry’s fourth year of schooling, the Minister and anyone who blindly followed the man painted Harry as insane and an attention seeker. It took Voldemort invading the Ministry for anyone to pull their finger out and finally inform the public.” Remus continued, he took a step closer to the werewolf every time he stated a point.

 

“My godson has been treated like garbage since he entered the wizarding world, he doesn’t need to fight in this war but he does so because he believes that everyone has a right to live their life without persecution. So please, tell me again that you know even the smallest detail about my godson’s life..” Remus threatened as he stepped in the other werewolf’s personal space.

 

“Okay, enough, please.” Talyn interrupted, he didn’t want a fight to break out over this matter.

 

“I’m sorry.” Remus apologised as he made his way back to his previous seat.

 

“My mate and I will discuss this and then get back to you with our answer.” Talyn told Remus as he helped his mate to stand.

 

“Of course, I’ll just write a reply to my godson and send it back with Dobby.” Remus replied as he stood back up to bid the Alpha and his mate farewell.

 

“Dobby, can you take a letter back to Harry for me?” Remus asked as he turned the elf who hadn’t moved from the spot he had arrived in since the discussion had started.

 

“Of course Master Lupin, sir. I be happy to.”

 

 

With conversation ended, Remus went off to the tent that had been assigned to for his stay at the camp. He had two letters to write while he waited for the answer he was hoping to get.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHP**

Harry’s chance to get rid of Dumbledore finally came up when the old coot decided waiting for Severus to finally make the potions he wanted was taking too long. He had paid a visit to Severus in his potions lab, demanding that Severus speed up his making of the potions he wanted. When Severus refused to make the potions, because he wanted no part in Dumbledore’s schemes, Dumbledore turned around and threatened to let slip to Voldemort that Severus was the other spy in his ranks.

 

Severus didn’t take too well to the threats, he still refused to make the potions for Dumbledore and told him as much. Dumbledore had stormed out of Severus’ lab mumbling about finding another person to do what he wanted.

 

Harry felt that now was the time to do something about the meddling old coot, before the old man took things too far. Harry set about informing Madame Bones about what the Headmaster had been trying to do since the school year had started. Severus had supplied the memories for both the incidences where Dumbledore had tried to get him to brew the potions, Harry had also supplied a sample of the potion that Ginny Weasley had been trying to feed him since the school year had begun.

 

Currently, the Wizengamot and the School Board were going over all the details and deciding on the best course of action. They were already planning on firing him from his position at Hogwarts and bringing in McGonagall, they just needed to decide on what the punishment for his transgressions were going to be.

 

Draco had suggested that they could draw and quarter him, but Hermione said that was too barbaric, even for Dumbledore. Blaise jokingly suggested that they should hand him over to Voldemort as a peace offering, Harry told him that even though Dumbledore was a manipulative old bastard that cared for only his greater good, even Dumbledore didn’t deserve that punishment.

 

All in all, things were finally falling into place, Fudge was gone, the new laws Lucius had drafted were being assessed and Dumbledore was on his way out. Next up was Harry’s training that had been kicked up another notch by Severus, Harry had finally bested the man in a duel and the potions professor felt he was finally ready to go against the Dark Lord. Now all they needed to do was solidify Blaise’s battle plan and things would be set for the upcoming battle.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHP**

“Did Madame Bones say when the Wizengamot would come to a decision?” Draco asked Harry.

 

“No, not yet. They’re still arguing with the Board of Governors over which punishment they want to give him for his transgressions. The Board thinks firing him was punishment enough but the Wizengamot thinks he deserves something more severe.” Harry told him as they continued to set up the practice dummies for their next DA meeting.

 

“You’d think with all the evidence against him, they’d have come up with something by now.” Blaise added.

 

“They’re procrastinating, it’s one thing for Dumbledore to break the law but it’s a completely different thing when they have to make a choice how to punish said man for his crimes. Especially considering what he did during the time of Grindelwald.” Harry explained.

 

“Wouldn’t surprise me.” Blaise said as he laid out a couple of sparing mats.

 

“I just want things over and done with, Dumbledore has been scheming since Severus told him where to shove it. I don’t want him here any longer, he’s planning something and I don’t know if we’ll be able to thwart it before it affects me.” Harry told the two other wizards.

 

“Yeah, you’re right, he has been uncharacteristically quiet since uncle Sev told him he wasn’t going to brew those potions.” Draco said after he thought back over the past week.

 

“Okay, this is getting depressing, can we change the subject?” Blaise asked.

 

“All right, Blaise, have you solidified that plan of yours yet?” Harry asked.

 

“I’m nearly there, Bill is coming by on Saturday to go over the finer details of the wards we’re going to need.” Blaise told him.

 

“Hermione heard back from Charlie, several of the other Dragon handlers have agreed to help in the fight. They’re used to going up against deadly Dragons during their breeding season, going up against Death Eaters won’t be too difficult.” Harry told them.

 

“Isn’t George bringing Oliver with him tonight?” Draco asked.

 

“Yeah, George was talking to Oliver about what Blaise was planning and Oliver offered his strategy skills. He came up with some really good game plays when he was captain of Gryffindor’s Quidditch team.” Harry explained.

 

“Great, the more people I have helping me, the quicker this plan can be finished and we can start implementing it.”

 

 

The three wizards spent the next half hour talking about school stuff while they finished setting up the room for the DA meeting. Severus was due to arrive soon, he had been called to the Ministry to give more evidence against Dumbledore, mostly involving all the blackmail the older wizard had been using against Severus ever since he had become a spy for the Order.

 

Lucius was also due to turn up that night, it was his first night off in the two weeks since he took office and with Remus still at the Werewolf camp, Lucius decided that spending his spare time at the DA meeting was better than sitting alone in the Library at the Potter Manor all on his own. Hopefully when he turned up he would have some news regarding the decision about Dumbledore and when the trial would be held.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHP**

“If we place the lower years in this part of the school, that will leave this section too open for attack.” Blaise told the group who were currently helping him go over the strategy plan for the final battle.

 

 

It was half an hour into the DA meeting and Blaise’s strategy group had grown from just him to involve George, Bill, Oliver Wood, Hermione and Terry Boot who was apparently a very good chess player.

 

Oliver had helped them to close several gaps in their defence that none of the others had seen, Blaise guessed Harry’s stories about the former Gryffindor Keeper were accurate. George was helping them to decide where the best places to implement the twin’s new potions would be, they now had a supply big enough to equip everyone in the DA as well as those in the Order and the Ministry who would be helping.

 

Their latest problem was figuring out how they were going to cover the clock tower courtyard, they didn’t have enough DA members to go around and they really didn’t want to use the untrained students in the school if they didn’t need to. Severus was working on several rooms in the dungeons to house those who would not be fighting, hoping to keep them out of harm’s way.

 

 

“If Remus can get the werewolves to join us then we’ll have the numbers we need to cover that area, until then we’ll just have to stick with smaller groups at the stone circle.” Bill told him.

 

“It’s not ideal but it’s all we have at the present time.” Oliver told him when he noticed the other boy was about to protest.

 

 

Before any of them could say another word, they noticed Lucius walk into the room and make his way over to Harry who was training a group of third year members. The blonde pulled Harry aside and told him something that made a shit eating grin spread across the young man’s face.

 

 

“I wonder what that is all about.” George said as they saw Harry walked over to Severus who was supervising a group of DA members who were brewing healing potions.

 

“Let’s go find out.” Blaise said as he stood from his seat and headed in their direction.

 

“Harry, what’s happening?” Bill asked once they reached the other wizard.

 

“Lucius just came with news about Dumbledore’s trial, they have finally decided on a verdict and have scheduled the trial for Saturday after lunch.” Harry told them.

 

“Fantastic, that means he’ll be gone by Monday.” Draco said as he joined the group.

 

“Actually, he’ll be gone before then. Lucius will be turning up during breakfast tomorrow with three Auror’s to arrest Dumbledore and inform him of his lack of a job.” Harry told them, a look of glee clear in his eyes.

 

“This is great news, we’ll be Dumbledore free before the end of breakfast.” Blaise added.

 

“It is great news but right now we need to get back to what we were doing. I’ve already sent Dobby off to go and find Remus to give him the paperwork that Lucius had sent me earlier today, we just need to wait for their answer before we go forward with any of our other plans.” Harry told the group that had formed around him and Severus.

 

 

With affirmation from those who had gathered, they all split off back into their groups to finish their jobs. Harry gave Severus a kiss before he too went back to what he was doing, he was looking forward to the celebratory sex Severus had offered once Dumbledore was no longer a problem. The session couldn’t go fast enough.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHP**

Breakfast the next morning was filled with thinly veiled excitement emitting from the DA members, they knew what was coming towards the end of the meal and they were getting impatient.

 

Harry had spent most of the meal eating off Draco’s plate and drinking Blaise’s juice, from the dirty and outraged look he was getting from Dumbledore, he was glad he did. Reaffirmed his thoughts that the old coot would slip something in sooner or later, just another thing to add to the list of things going against him. Harry would be sure to take food and drink samples for Severus to test once Dumbledore had been taken from the school.

 

Harry had just struck up a conversation with Pansy about their Transfiguration assignment when the Great Hall doors opened and in strolled Lucius with three Auror’s at his side, one of them being Kingsley. All heads in the hall turned to the door and the low murmur of chatter that head filled the hall before was no longer present.

 

Lucius and his entourage walked down the centre isle of the room before stopping at the two steps that led to the raised platform the teachers table was on. Dumbledore stood from his seat and addressed the new occupants of the hall.

 

 

“Lucius, gentlemen, what brings you here this early in the morning?”

 

“As Minister for Magic I am here to inform you that you are being placed under arrest and that you need to accompany us to the Ministry.” Lucius told the older wizard, as much as he would like to deck the eccentric wizard, years of his aristocratic upbringing kicked in and he was able to push that urge to the back of his mind.

 

“What is this meaning of this? This must be a joke?” Dumbledore cried in outrage.

 

“Charges have been brought against you concerning several students at this school as well as teachers. You have been relieved of your position as Headmaster and you will proceed to accompany us to the Ministry where you will be held in a Ministry holding cell awaiting your trial before the Wizengamot.” Kingsley told his former mentor, he could not believe the amount of evidence that had piled up against the man since Lucius had brought up the issue with them the previous week.

 

“I demand an explanation for these charges.” Dumbledore yelled again, outrage clear on his face. He kept looking over to where Harry was sitting and he was not happy with the smug look on the brat’s face.

 

“Dumbledore, you can either come with us quietly or I can stun your ass and drag you out of that chair. I’d rather not do that in front of the students but if you keep protesting and making demands then I’ll have no choice but to do so.” Lucius told him.

 

 

Dumbledore felt that giving in would be the better option, Lucius, Kingsley and the other two Auror’s that were accompanying them had their wands drawn and aimed at him. His choices were limited and if he wanted answers and a chance to get out of this then he needed to conform and leave with them.

 

He knew that Potter brat had something to do with this and he was pretty sure that Severus had helped him do it. He knew he should have done something sooner, things were getting further out of his control and he didn’t like it. To save face, he got back up from his seat and walked around the table to the awaiting Auror’s. Kingsley led the small group out of the hall, passing gaping students on the way.

 

 

“Professor McGonagall, you have been promoted to Headmistress and will need to take over the duties immediately.” Lucius informed the witch as he turned to look at her once Dumbledore had exited the hall.

 

“Of course.” McGonagall said, she was still in shock from the events that just occurred. She knew that Albus’ manipulations would come back to haunt him one day.

 

“Who will be the new Deputy?” Minerva asked.

 

“Professor Snape has been offered the position.” Lucius told her.

 

“Severus?”

 

“I received the letter last night, I haven’t yet given my answer.” Severus replied.

 

“The Board of Governor’s require an answer by the weekend.” Lucius told him.

 

 

Once Severus agreed, Lucius turned and walked back down the centre aisle. He briefly paused when he passed the section of the Slytherin table that Harry was sitting at and he handed Harry a sheet of paper before continuing on his way out of the hall.

 

As soon as the doors closed, the hall broke out into a raucous cacophony of sounds. This event would be news circulating the school for at least a week, the outcome will be talked about for even longer.

 

 

“I thought he would have chucked a bigger stink about being pulled from the school.” Pansy said.

 

“I know, I thought he would have acted the way he did in our fifth year when he used his Phoenix to escape.” Draco added.

 

“The good thing is that he’s out of here and now we can fully concentrate on getting this school ready for when Voldemort attacks.” Harry told them.

 

“Are we all going to the trial on Saturday?” Blaise asked.

 

“You bet your ass we are, do you honestly think I’m going to miss out on watching that old bastard get knocked down a peg or two.” Harry replied.

 

“I didn’t know that Professor Snape had been offered the job of Deputy Headmaster.” Blaise said.

 

“Yeah, he told me last night about the offer, he was a bit hesitant about taking the job because he wasn’t too sure on what my plans are once we graduate.” Harry told them.

 

“What are you going to do? I don’t think you’ve ever mentioned any sort of career.” Pansy asked.

 

“At first I was going to stick with what Professor McGonagall suggested and become and Auror. That idea went out the window when I thought through it again and decided that, once the war was over, I no longer want to fight dark wizards. So, I opted for a teaching job.” Harry explained.

 

“What position?” Blaise asked.

 

“Well, if the new werewolf rights bill is passed then Lucius was thinking of asking Remus to be the liaison between the werewolf packs and the Ministry. If he accepts then that leaves the Defence Against the Dark Arts post right open. Once we have confirmation about the bill, as well as Remus’ answer, then I was going to have a talk with Professor McGonagall about taking over the position.” Harry replied.

 

“Professor Potter, has a nice ring to it.” Draco added.

 

“Maybe you’ll be the one to break the curse.”  Pansy said.

 

“Maybe.”

 

 

The rest of breakfast continued with the constant chatter about the events that had transpired that morning, classes that day were going to be interesting.

 

 

**HPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHPSSHP**

“Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, who have been brought before the Wizengamot to face charges brought upon you by three separate parties. The first is a Mr Harry James Potter, secondly is Mr Severus Tobias Snape and thirdly is the head Goblin at Gringotts bank. Do you have anything to say before we start the proceedings?” Madame Bones started, the trial of Albus Dumbledore was underway.

 

“Not presently, no.”

 

“All right then, let us begin. Please do not interrupt until you have been directly acknowledged.”

 

 

Harry didn’t know whose idea it was to use the same courtroom that he had been brought to in his fifth year, but he sure thought it fitting. The room was filled to the brim, a high-profile case like this was sure to bring everyone who could fit. Reporters from several magazines and papers were in attendance as well as the news reporter for the Wizarding Wireless Network, all had eager and or predatory looks on their faces as they watched the former Hogwarts Headmaster in the centre of the room.

 

On the left side of the courtroom were all those who supported the old man, there weren’t that many people there, mostly members of the Order who supported all of his plans. Amongst them were the members of the Weasley family who were not fans of Harry, Molly Weasley was giving him dirty looks every time he looked over there.

 

Harry sat on the right side of room, his friends sitting with him, Severus was sat next to him, a stony look on his face as he stared straight ahead.

 

As Madame Bones read out the charges against his former Headmaster, Harry thought about the response he had gotten from Remus the day before. The werewolf pack he had been staying with had agreed to fight in the war against Voldemort, they also said they wold try and get the help of two other packs that they were trading partners with. Remus would be returning on Monday with the Alpha and his mate and would be attending the DA meeting that night.

 

With Dumbledore out of the school, Harry had explained everything to Professor McGonagall and with her help, they had enlisted the help of the other Professor’s in regards to securing the younger students.

 

 

“This is absurd!” Harry was brought out of his musings when Dumbledore’s shout rang through the room.

 

“Mr Dumbledore, I have asked you to please stay quiet or you will be removed from the room. The evidence against you is insurmountable, not only did you knowingly leave Mr Potter with an abusive family, you sent him back there every year despite his protests. I have here a medical report from Madame Pomphrey showing numerous injuries that she healed upon Mr Potter’s return to Hogwarts at the start of every year.” Madame Bones told the barmy old coot.

 

“Injuries she told you about and when she told you when would be filing a report against Mr Potter’s relatives for child abuse, you had her memory altered to make her think that the injuries were just plain old childhood war wounds caused by rough housing. What you didn’t realise is that Madame Pomphrey duplicates her reports, so while you thought you had destroyed the evidence of Mr Potter’s injuries, the backup was stored in the Hospital Wing.” She informed him.

 

“Furthermore, we have obtained you Gringotts account records which show a monthly stipend into a muggle bank account that was traced to the Dursley family. When we questioned Mr Potter’s relatives, we learned that not only did you pay them for taking in their nephew but you also paid them to beat the boy so he would be submissive and easy to control once he entered into the wizarding world.” The court room filled with gasps at this revelation, many could not believe that the once gentle, albeit eccentric, wizard would do such a thing to a child.

 

“He needed to be that way, the wizarding world doesn’t need a cocky and careless saviour.” Dumbledore tried to reason, his words just caused more outrage.

 

“No child deserves that sort of treatment; any number of wizarding families would have happily taken in the Boy-Who-Lived but you never gave anyone the opportunity to do so. One of whom was the boy’s own godfather, a man who was wrongly accused of his crime and place into Azkaban prison without a trial to get him out of your way so you could control the boy.” Amelia added.

 

“You have no proof of that. I’ll admit that Sirius Black was falsely accused of the betrayal of the Potter’s, as well as the murders of those muggles but I had nothing to do with him going to jail.” The chatter among the attending witches and wizards rose at this new piece of information.

 

“We do have evidence, provided to us by the former Minister who claims that you bribed him to falsify papers during the aftermath of the first war. Considering he provided all this information after voluntarily taking Veritaserum, we are more inclined to believe him over you.” Another member of the Wizengamot spoke up.

 

“I didn’t know that, I just thought that Crouch was being spiteful after the capture of his son.” Harry murmured, yet another thing to hate Dumbledore for.

 

“Once this trial is over, we will be offering a posthumous apology to the former Mister Black for his wrongful imprisonment. And when the true culprit of the crimes is caught, he will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.” Another member stated.

 

“Now, back to our reading of the offences. We have been provided with evidence showing your blatant spending of funds from the Potter family vaults, a grand total of twenty million Galleons over the period of fifteen years….”

 

 

The trial went on in the same manor for another hour, Dumbledore tried to refute claims only to be put in his place when the evidence was against him. Throughout the whole proceedings, cameras were flashing and Quick Quotes quills were speeding across the pads of the attending reporters.

 

Harry’s blood boiled with more and more reports on what the old man had done over the years, including during the first war. Someone in the Auror department had done a lot of digging to find all of the things that Dumbledore had done, there were probably things that they had yet to find as well. The man had skeletons upon skeletons in his closet and all his dirty laundry was being aired for the whole magical world to see.

 

Harry became even more pissed when the charges brought forth by Severus were read, Harry knew some of his lovers past but not all of it. The fact that Dumbledore had exploited the Slytherin man when he was an impressionable youth was just outrageous. He used Severus’ need for friends to control the boy and then spent years finding more ways to use Severus for his plans, nothing more than a disposable pawn in his bid to control the outcome of everything.

 

Dumbledore had struck when Severus was at his weakest, he was being bullied by Harry’s father and his friends, he had almost been killed due to Sirius’ carelessness and Dumbledore had jumped at the chance to add another mouldable pawn to his arsenal. Any doubts about Severus’ true allegiance was put to rest and Severus’ funds, which had been on hold since his trial after the first war, were finally released to him.

 

When it came to the charges brought forth by the goblins of Gringotts, Harry tuned out. He already knew why they were pressing charges, he just wanted to know what the sentencing was going to be.

 

Once all charges were read, and all pensieve memories viewed, the Wizengamot called for a recess. While they had already decided on a fit punishment, they felt that the occupants of the courtroom had been sitting long enough.

 

Harry exited with Draco and Blaise and they made their way through the throng of reporters to find the restrooms. Security had been tightened so much that it was bordering on ridiculous. Though Harry could understand, this was a high-profile case and Voldemort would just love to try and catch Harry out in public. That was also the main reason he would be Flooing straight to Hogwarts from Lucius’ office, it was the safest choice considering the only other option was for him to Floo from the very open Atrium upstairs where anyone could easily get to him.

 

Once they had finished in the restroom, the group of three made their way to the room that had been set up for those attending the trial to have tea. Thankfully, Lucius had thought it wise to have the Dumbledore sympathisers separate from those against him. Harry really didn’t want to run into Mrs Weasley, her glares in the courtroom were bad enough, he didn’t need to deal with her actual voice.

 

 

“The trial is going well, so far anyway.” Blaise said as he poured himself a cup of coffee.

 

“I love the look he gets on his face every time one of his lies is demolished with irrefutable evidence.” Draco added, a smug smile on his face.

 

“That’s my favourite part too.” Harry told him.

 

“The reporters are having a field day with this whole event.”

 

Harry nodded as he sipped from his mug of coffee. “I know, they seem to be exuding a lot of glee at the turn of events so far.”

 

“Uncle Sev doesn’t seem happy about a lot of stuff that was brought up about him.”

 

“It’s good that his accounts are finally being un-ceased, he has been living off of a measly teacher’s salary.” Draco told them.

 

“His salary will be recalculated, apparently Dumbledore has been underpaying him all these years. That’s a lot of back pay that he is due. Now he can finally stock his personal lab with better ingredients than the subpar ones he’s been using.” Harry said.

 

 

A loud gong interrupted their conversation, letting them know that it was time to return to the courtroom. The three young men put down their mugs and made their way back, taking their previous seats.

 

 

“Thank you all for re-joining us.” Madame Bones said as she retook her seat. Dumbledore was led back into the room and sat down in his previous seat.

 

“The Wizengamot has come to a decision on the very fitting punishment for the crimes committed by Albus Dumbledore. Mr Dumbledore, please stand for the reading of the verdict.”

 

“This court finds you guilty on all charges. For your gross negligence, blackmail, theft and misuse of your authority as headmaster of Hogwarts, we sentence you to fifteen years in Azkaban prison. Your magic will be bound and you will be required to do one thousand hours of community service, the terms of which will be determined by the Minister. All funds that you have stolen from other people’s vaults shall be re-funded from your own vault, if the value is not sufficient then personal property shall be sold to make up the total of monies taken. Furthermore, public apologies shall be made by you to the victims of your crimes.” Madame Bones read.

 

“Auror’s, please escort Mr Dumbledore to the Ministry holding cells to await processing before being sent to Azkaban.”

 

 

Three Auror’s walked forward and placed cuffs on the wizard’s wrists, these cuffs would temporarily block the man’s magic until the necessary spell could be performed. Furious cries from his supporters were drowned out by the cacophony of noise coming from the reporters who were all trying to speak at once. Dumbledore was led from the room, camera flashes following as the reporters followed after him.

 

 

“While I would have liked to of seen him assigned his own personal Dementor, this punishment seems good enough.” Harry said as he stood from his seat.

 

“It all seems so anticlimactic now, doesn’t it?” Draco asked as they all started to make their way out of the room.

 

“He got what he deserved and he can no longer hurt anyone to achieve his selfish goals.” Severus told them.

 

“Next up to go will be Voldemort, then we can all finally live in peace.”

 

 

Dumbledore was finally gone and Harry could now concentrate on the upcoming battle. One way or another, Voldemort will be the next to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dumbledore is gone! The final battle is the next chapter. I'm planning on it being about as long as this one was, longest chapter I've ever done for this story.


End file.
